


Soulmates One-Shots

by LadyWinterlight



Series: A World of Soulmates [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jossverse, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, F/M, Hacking, Multi, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Shorts, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Warnings May Change, crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:45:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 40,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4899016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyWinterlight/pseuds/LadyWinterlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my collection of Soulmates short stories. The pairings will all be relatively rare pairs, though I'm not limiting myself entirely to pairings that haven't met yet. There are ways to finagle things, at least some of the time. Please note that these are all one-shots; the stories are (mostly) not related. So Skye being in the first two stories does not mean that she has soulmarks for Jean and for Fitz. They're AU from each other as well as from canon.</p><p>There will be some crossovers, and I'm happy to entertain suggestions within universes I'm familiar with. And yes, some of these will likely contain spoilers.</p><p>My goal is to keep them all under 2000 words, unless I'm dealing with triads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter Index

**Author's Note:**

> As a reminder, each chapter is unrelated to the chapters previous.

I'm guessing that, much like Ozhawk, CeliaEquus and others who have created similar collections that this will in time need an index of pairings. So I'm going to start with one, because why not?

"In Spite Of Some People" would actually be the first of these shorts that I've written. But it will be kept in the series separately because I wanted to make it possible for people to collect as part of Samtember.

1\. Chapters Index

2\. Prove Your Faith - Skye/Fitz (AoS)

3\. To See If I Could Help - Jean Grey/Skye

4\. Can We Maybe Dispense With Titles? - Jemma/Sif

5\. I See Your 'Daddy Issues' - Skye/Loki

6\. Everyone Ready? - Skye/Jemma/Steve

7\. I Knew You Would Come - Skye/Wanda

8\. We're Not Doing This - Skye/Natasha/Clint

9\. We Didn't Know It Was Broken - Skye/Bucky

10\. A Regular Firecracker - Bucky Barnes/Buffy Summers (BTVS crossover)

11\. Out Of Immediate View - Maria Hill/Daisy Johnson

12. I Knew Him - Bucky/Brock/Daisy

13\. For What It's Worth - Daisy/Steve/Tony

14\. People Like Us - Daisy/Natasha

15\. You Met The Best One First - Bucky/Steve/Skye/Tony

16\. Monopolizing the Area - Sharon Carter/Daisy Johnson

17. Could Use A Minute - Buffy Summers/Clint Barton/Daisy Johnson (BTVS Crossover)

18\. Brilliant and Beautiful - Daisy Johnson/Jane Foster

19\. Your Turn, Come! - Skye/Pietro Maximoff

20\. Fight Now, Talk After? - Pietro Maximoff/Buffy Summers (BTVS Crossover)

21\. Look Out! - Skye/Wanda Maximoff (prompt and pairing request)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone else winds up writing fics inspired by these shorts, please do let me know! I am aware that other people have allowed friends and readers to write follow-ups or continuations to their short stories. I haven't yet decided whether or not I'm going to, but I'm willing to at least consider it if someone has an idea. Short answer is: talk to me!
> 
> As always, I'm reachable on Tumblr as well: ladywinterlight.tumblr.com or @ladywinterlight


	2. Prove Your Faith (Skye/Fitz)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, when you and your soulmate make choices that prove your faith in each other, you gain a soulmark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Winter's soulmate short stories! I hope you enjoy!

From this:

To this:

My first attempt at a manip in over a dozen years. I hope it came out okay. :)  

 

* * *

“When did you get a soulmark, Fitz?” Jemma asked, her tone startled. She knew fully well that he’d never had one before. It would’ve been in his medical file, even if she hadn’t seen it herself.

The team had just returned to the Playground from the Iliad to debrief, decompress and heal. May had ordered full post-mission checkups for everyone, just to be on the safe side because no one wanted to worry about accidental contamination or exposure to the terrigen crystals.

“I have a what?” Fitz turned, the motion of pulling his sweater back on arrested halfway.

“A soulmark!” Jemma answered insistently. “It’s here…” She reached out gently but halted just shy of touching the skin on his lower back. Instead she grabbed a mirror so he could see. The mark had no words, just a swirling knotwork of interconnecting lines in shades of blue and green.

“I’ve never seen a soulmark like that before, Jemma!” Fitz protested. “It looks more like a tattoo.”

“I’ve read about these, but I’ve never seen one,” Jemma answered in a low tone, her voice almost awed. “They don’t use words like most soulmarks do. Instead, when you and your soulmate have both made a choice that proves your faith in each other you each gain a matching mark! Why, Fitz, this is fascinating! I wonder who it could be...”

Fitz frowned, his thoughts turning inward as he considered her explanation. “Then it would have to be someone I already know?” he asked cautiously. If that was true, he had a pretty good idea of who it would have to be…

“Yes, that’s how it works.”

“Thanks, Jems. I’ll think about it. Gotta go now,” he said hurriedly, tugging his cardigan over his shoulders and almost running out of the labs.

Could it be? He’d always been Unmarked. He’d heard plenty of stories of people gaining their soulmarks later in life, though he hadn’t heard about a phenomena of soulmarks that weren’t words. He’d have to research, perhaps. But later.

For now, he needed to know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skye sat in her room examining the odd mark on her calf. She hadn’t noticed it at first; she didn’t pay a ton of attention to her legs unless she was shaving. She hadn’t worn a skirt in ages, and slipping into her pants in the morning didn’t usually require looking.

At least, not until a glance down as she stepped into her jeans showed her a flash of color where there shouldn’t have been any.

The blue and green swirls reminded her of the Celtic knots that were popular in anything Irish-American. It was actually rather pretty, and it wasn’t so much that she minded its presence. It was that she had absolutely NO idea how it got there.

A knock at the door pulled her attention away from the mark. “Come in,” she called, letting the leg of her jeans fall back into its usual place. She tilted her head at Fitz as he entered, curious. “Hey, Fitz. What’s up?”

“I, um, have a, uh, question. To ask you, I mean,” Fitz mumbled, stuttering. Skye smiled inwardly, recognizing his old, uncomfortable stuttering as opposed to how he started to stutter after his injury.

“Sure,” she answered agreeably. “What’s up?”

“Have you, um, well, I mean…” Fitz sighed and just blurted it out. “Do you have a new soulmark, Skye?”

Skye blinked, confused.  A new soulmark?  Could it be?  But Soulmarks were always words, weren’t they? “Well,” she began slowly, her mind racing, “I did find this new… thing… on me earlier today. But it doesn’t really look like soulmarks generally do.”

“Does it look anything like this?” Fitz asked, turning around and lifting up his shirt just enough for her to see the mark on his pale skin.

“Yeah. Actually, it does,” Skye answered softly. She started to reach out but pulled back quickly when he dropped his shirt and turned back to face her. “They’re soulmarks?”

“Yes. Well, Jemma said so anyway,” Fitz explained hurriedly. “She said that they appear when two people have made choices that prove their faith in each other or something.”

“So… like maybe when I chose to fight with my SHIELD family against my mother and the other Inhumans?” Skye ventured.

“Possibly. Or maybe, if it has to be specific, when you went after your mum and trusted that Coulson, Mack and I could handle ourselves inside,” Fitz suggested.

“If this is all true,” Skye said after a few moments of silence, “then your moment would have to have been when you chose to protect me from the rest of the team.”

Fitz blushed and nodded. “Probably, yeah,” he agreed softly. He wore a concerned expression as he moved closer to Skye, knelt on the floor in front of her where she sat on the bed. “Are you..? I mean, is this all… okay?”

Skye smiled softly and reached out to run a gentle fingertip along his jaw. “Why wouldn’t it be? I mean, you chose me over all the other people here that you care about. You helped me through everything, reminded me that there really are people who care enough to overlook my differences.”

Fitz pulled Skye into a gentle hug. “I said it before, and I mean it as much now as I did then. You’re just different, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he assured her. “Human or Inhuman, mutant or superhero or whatever. You’re still Skye. You’ll always be Skye.” He pulled back and smiled at her. “Even if you cut your hair,” he teased her gently.

Her hands went to her head, brushing through the much-shortened strands of her hair. “Yeah, well. I figured it was time for a change. A new me.” She sighed softly. “I’m actually thinking about starting to use the name my parents gave me. Though I’d probably keep Skye as a middle name; it’s mine, the name I chose, and even if it’s not my only name anymore…”

“You still want to keep what you had,” Fitz finished her thought with a small smile. “I don’t mind. Your name doesn’t define you anymore than your powers do. If you want to be Daisy, I’ll call you Daisy.”

Skye gave him a teasing smile. “What if I want you to call me yours? Is that okay too?”

“Always,” he promised her.

Before he could say anything more, Skye leaned in and kissed him softly. He was blushing when she pulled back, but before she could ask if he was alright, he pulled her back in for a second, deeper kiss. His arms folded around her, as comforting now as they’d been when he’d first promised her that there was nothing wrong with her.

And for them, in that brief moment, all was right with the world.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1137 words. Well under my goal, for once! But the first one was a bit over. So trade-offs, I suppose.
> 
> I had to come up with a way to make this work, given that there's SO much history between the two characters. But I also couldn't not! They're really rather adorable.


	3. To See If I Could Help (Skye/Jean Grey)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This diverges from AoS canon after S2E14 - Love In The Time of Hydra. Skye was sent to the cabin by Coulson but Real SHIELD hasn't shown their faces yet.

 

 

Jean Grey approached the cabin slowly, cautiously. The cabin was in the middle of nowhere, nothing around for miles and miles, but surrounded by a laser fence. She couldn’t help but wonder if it was meant to keep someone out... or someone in.

She was here to investigate a strange new presence that the Professor detected. It bore similarities to a newly awakened mutant, but it also had some marked differences. Jean, of course, had no way of knowing just who or what was inside the cabin; her telepathy was much more limited in range, and tended to only work at a greater distance with people she knew extremely well.

Even so, the closer she got to the cabin, the more she agreed with the Professor. What she sensed was a lot of confusion and a fear so strong it was nearly terror, but held so tightly under wraps that Jean wondered how the person was holding on. It made Jean glad she was here alone; if they’d brought in a team, they could have frightened this person into lashing out. And depending on the power, that could be dangerous for everyone.

Not that she didn’t have backup; Ororo had flown the plane out here, though the landing point was some distance away, and Kurt was there as well, prepared to either retrieve Jean in the blink of an eye or bring Ororo out to help if called. She was familiar enough with both of their minds to be able to reach them if she concentrated. The Professor had wanted to send Scott with her as well, but they were fighting again and she had refused with the point that no one on the team was comfortable around the two of them when they fought.

Jean walked up the steps and knocked on the door. She caught a glimpse of dark hair and eyes as someone peeked out the window before hesitantly opening the door. Jean put on her friendliest smile and projected a sense of calm. The young woman’s exotic eyes and fine-boned features took her breath away for a moment; she was absolutely beautiful.

“I wasn’t expecting anyone today,” the girl said slowly. “I’m not sure if I want to ask how you got here.”

Oh, now that’s not what I expected. Jean could only blink in surprise for a long moment.

 

Skye’s attention was diverted from her laptop by a knock at the door. That was just strange; Coulson hadn’t told her that May was coming so soon. He said she’d be by every few days, but she didn’t think they’d have sent someone to check up on her after only a day and a half.

She got up and went to the door, peeking out around the curtain. Standing on the porch was one of the most stunning women Skye had ever seen. Tall and lithe with fiery red hair, bright green eyes and a gentle smile. If she’d been an Agent, Skye was sure she’d have been a heartbreaker. But this woman didn’t move like May or Morse or any of the high-end female operatives she’d ever been in contact with. She didn’t dress like an agent, either, though she did have on some sort of form-fitting jumpsuit with a logo Skye didn’t recognize.

Curiosity had her opening the door before caution could prevent it. She thought she’d been seen anyway. “I wasn’t expecting anyone today,” she said, feeling unreasonably calm for some reason. “I’m not sure if I want to ask how you got here.”

She watched, curious, as the other woman’s smile froze in place and green eyes widened in surprise. The silence stretched out as she waited for a response. But what came wasn’t at all what she thought she’d hear.

“I came to see if I could help.” Skye dimly noted that the redhead had a warm, gentle voice as she held her breath and waited for the rest. “I never thought I’d find you here.”

Skye let out her held breath in whoosh of air. Her soulmate words; well, one set of them anyway. This was the absolute last place she’d expected to be when she heard them. She smiled as she collected her thoughts and stepped back to hold the door open. “Well, in that case, I’m gonna guess it’s safe to assume that you’re not here to kill me. So you might as well come in.”

Jean’s expression softened as she followed her soulmate into the cabin. The place was small, cozy, and apparently isolated for a reason. She moved far enough inside to allow the door to close and turned back to face the younger woman. “My name is Jean. Jean Grey.” She held out her hand and only then noticed the compression casts on the girl’s arms and fading bruises coloring her fingers.

Skye leaned back against the newly re-locked door but gently put her hand in Jean’s before the other woman could draw back at the sight of her hands. “I’m Skye. Can I get you something to drink, maybe?”

“No, thank you,” Jean replied. “But if you’d like something, don’t let me stop you.”

Skye just grabbed her water glass from beside her laptop and waved towards the couch in the living area. “So, what brings you out to the middle of nowhere?” Skye asked carefully. “I’ve gotta say, you finding me all the way out here is a little hard to believe.”

“I can see how it would be,” Jean replied, settling into a chair. Part of her desperately wanted to sit on the couch beside Skye, but she didn’t want to push. Skye’s mind was feeling fragile, now that they were in the same room. “The truth is that I’m a mutant, Skye. I carry the X-gene, and I have a unique gift. My mentor noticed a disturbance in this area that could indicate someone with a new gift, and I came to see if I could help.”

“A disturbance?” Skye was intrigued; she hadn’t actually done anything since she got here other than try to practice the meditation May had taught her. She wanted to wait until the bruises were mostly gone before risking experimentation with her power.

Jean paused to consider how to best explain. “The Professor’s ability is to sense the minds of those around him. People with gifts or powers feel different to him than a normal human’s. He couldn’t quite identify what or who was here, only that help might be needed.”

Skye shook her head with a sigh. “Well, I think I can safely say that I’m not human,” she answered quietly. “I’m pretty sure I don’t carry your X-gene, though. My DNA is way stranger than that.”

“What do you mean?” It was Jean’s turn to be curious.

Skye shrugged. “What’s your power?” she asked, deflecting for a moment.

With a small smile, Jean allowed Skye to divert her for the time being. Perhaps the issue was too recent for her to be comfortable yet; soulmate or not, trust would take time. “I’m primarily a telekinetic, which means I can manipulate objects with my mind. I’m also telepathic and mildly empathic, though they’re not as strong.”

“You mean you can read my mind?”

Skye looked about to bolt and Jean hastened to reassure her. “I sense your presence, yes; I can’t help it. But I wouldn’t invade your privacy, Skye. If we were touching, I would pick up on strong surface thoughts. Over time, yes, I could hear your thoughts and speak into your mind with some ease. But not yet.”

Skye studied Jean, a little uneasily. Then she paused, as a thought struck her. “Can you help me control a power that seems to strengthen with my emotions?”

“To some degree, yes,” Jean agreed immediately. “I can certainly help to calm your emotions so you can keep better control of your power. Can I ask what it is?”

“I cause tremors,” Skye admitted, her voice just above a whisper. She looked away, unwilling to see the rejection she was sure her power would cause even if her soulmate did have power of her own. “I make everything shake, and when I tried to stop a bad one...” she trailed off.

Jean immediately moved to the empty couch seat beside Skye, and with the barest touch of a fingertip she drew Skye’s face back to hers. “You hurt yourself instead,” she breathed out gently, catching the unspoken thought. “Oh, honey.” Very gently, giving Skye plenty of time to move away, Jean tugged her soulmate into her arms. “I’m so sorry. Of course I’ll help, any way I can. We have a couple of people on our team with elemental powers; there’s a pretty good chance they can help you with things that I can’t.”

Skye burrowed into Jean’s arms, throwing caution to the wind and taking solace in the unconditional acceptance found in Jean’s embrace. They stayed that way quietly for a long while, with Jean holding Skye and stroking lightly over her hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly over 1500 words on this one. 
> 
> This one has a very real possibility of being expanded. I've been dabbling with it on and off for a while, but I don't know for sure. We'll see, I suppose.


	4. Can We Maybe Dispense With The Titles? (Jemma/Sif)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reprehensiblewombat asked for this on Tumblr. So I thought I’d give it a shot. :) I didn't have time to get a picture done, though. Maybe I can add one in later. Or perhaps someone else would like to make one?
> 
> Yes, I’m ignoring Jemma being sucked into the monolith. Deal with it.

_ _

_A lovely manip made for this chapter by **Dubstep_Wombat**!_

 

“Sir,” Fitz began when Coulson arrived in the Playground’s lab, “We’re reading a-an atmospheric disturbance. It looks like the bifrost, in the same place where Lady Sif took the Kree away.”

“Well, I suppose we’d best go see who’s arriving,” Coulson said with a tight smile. “Thanks, Fitz.”

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, May and Coulson pulled up to the site in their usual SUV. “Lady Sif,” Coulson greeted their obvious visitor. “What brings you here?”

“Son of Coul,” she greeted with a brief nod. “Though I did willingly leave Lady Skye in your keeping, I felt perhaps I should return to confirm that all is still well.”

“We’re doing fine,” Coulson confirmed readily. It had been a busy few months, but Skye had established a good rapport with the Inhumans after a lot of work. “But perhaps you’d like to come see for yourself?”

“I would, thank you,” Sif agreed.

* * *

Upon returning to the Playground, Coulson escorted Sif to the labs. Skye, Simmons, Bobbi and Lincoln all sat around the holotable discussing revisions to the Gifted Index. Simmons was all for expanding the data stored there, Lincoln wanted it minimized as much as possible, Bobbi looked at it from a proactive defense standpoint, and Skye was trying to mediate. These discussions had been occurring on and off for weeks.

“Much as I hate to interrupt the argument,” Coulson broke in after a moment, “we have a guest and I’d appreciate it if you could table this for the moment.” Turning back to Sif, Coulson said, “You remember Skye and Simmons, I’m sure.” When Sif nodded, he indicated the others. “Agent Bobbi Morse I believe you met in passing on your last visit. And this is Lincoln Campbell, a recent addition to our group of consultants.”

“A pleasure,” Sif said politely, bowing her head briefly to the agents. “My apologies for interrupting; I have come to check in on Lady Skye.”

Skye blinked, then nodded. “We didn’t part on the best of terms last time, did we?” she commented mildly. “I’m actually doing quite well.”

“You have gained control after your exposure to the Kree device?”

“Yeah, I have. I had some help, but I’m doing fine with it. It’s under control.”

“I am pleased to hear it,” Sif said with a smile. “It is well that your companions’ faith in you was not misplaced.”

“Thank you for trusting us to deal with it,” Skye answered, her face brightening with a smile of her own. “I wouldn’t have been able to come so far without the support of people who care about me.”

“I understand, Lady Skye,” Sif answered, her tone gentler than usual. “We may all achieve much greatness with the proper support.”

“Would you like to join us?” Jemma spoke up with a small smile. “I’m sure the rest of this discussion can wait for later.”

“Please,” Lincoln said, getting up from his seat and offering it to Sif with a brief bow of his head.

“No, she can take mine,” Bobbi said as she got up. “I have to go check in with Mack anyway.”

“I thank you,” Sif said with a bow of acceptance; she sat beside Jemma as Lincoln retook his seat beside Skye.“Will you tell me how you acquired your control, Lady Skye?”

Skye glanced at Lincoln, who nodded minutely, and then began an abbreviated version of meeting other people with special abilities - though leaving out any mention of more Diviners or terrigen crystals - and experimenting until she learned control. Sif looked a little confused when Skye first mentioned singing wine glasses, until Jemma got up to get one as an example.

Sif looked startled when the ringing sounded from the glass. “How did this help you with your powers?” she asked, confused.

“I don’t just make the ground shake,” Skye explained in a soft voice. “I actually manipulate vibrations. The sound is caused by the glass vibrating, and it helped to teach me fine control.” Skye gestured to the glass, and Jemma set it ringing again. This time, when she removed her finger Skye held her hand above the glass and kept it going.

“This is truly an intriguing gift,” Sif said. Curiously, she reached out to the glass but just as she touched it, the glass cracked and broke.

“Shit!” Skye swore. “Sorry! I forgot that the glass will break if the vibration is kept up long enough. It’s not really meant for that.”

“Are you alright?” Jemma asked Sif, her expression concerned. “Did you get cut by the glass?” She reached for Sif’s hand, turning it to look for signs of glass slivers. Both women gasped suddenly as their skin touched, and Jemma pulled back like she’d been burned. “Ow!”

Skye and Lincoln watched, fascinated, as faintly glowing runes spread across Sif and Jemma’s hands, beginning where they touched. “Woah. What the heck?” Skye exclaimed.

“Soulmarks. These are Asgardian soulmarks,” Sif answered in a low voice. She raised her eyes to meet Jemma’s, an expression of pure joy lighting her features. “You are my soulmate, Lady Jemma.”

“Um… if we’re soulmates, can we maybe dispense with the titles?” Jemma asked timidly. “I’d really rather just be Jemma, please.”

“Of course,” Sif’s expression softened. “If that is your wish.”

“We’ll just let ourselves out,” Lincoln said hurriedly, grabbing Skye’s arm and tugging her out of the lab.

Skye just grinned on her way out the door. “Congrats, you two!” she called over her shoulder as they left.

Jemma blushed, her eyes following Skye out of the room. Only when they were alone again did she return her eyes to Sif, and she realized that Sif’s gaze hadn’t left her since their eyes me. “I’m sorry,” she apologized hurriedly, babbling in her nervousness. “I must be a terrible disappointment to you. I’m… if you… when you…”

Sif cut her off with a gentle kiss. “You are far from a disappointment, Jemma,” she said gently. “I fear I must seem very simple to you; I am a warrior, plain and straightforward.”

“Oh, no, you’re beautiful!” Jemma broke in, shaking her head. “It’s just, you’re going to outlive me by a few thousand years. And I’m just a backwards Earth scientist. I know our science is millennia behind Asgard’s…”

“I’m certain you will have no difficulty making the transition,” Sif assured her. “And you will have time, I believe. If we complete the soulbond, I believe the magic of the universe will see to it that we are not parted prematurely due to differing lifespans.”

“It… will?”

Sif nodded. “That is what I am told.”

“Oh, good,” Jemma sighed, relieved. Then realization dawned. “But… oh, then I will outlive the rest of my family and friends...”

“That is likely,” Sif replied, lifting Jemma’s chin with her fingers. “But I swear that I will be here with you through it, if you choose the bond.”

“I think… I would like to give this, us, a chance,” Jemma answered softly. Lifting her chin further, this time she initiated the kiss. It was soft and sweet and perfect.

“My heart is yours, my Jemma,” Sif promised when their lips parted. “Now and forever.”

 

 


	5. I see your 'Daddy Issues' (Skye/Loki)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skye and Loki.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This short loosely follows the last one (Jemma/Sif), unlike most of these shorts which are unrelated. :)
> 
> Also, I was gifted a manip for Jemma/Sif. Please go check out the previous chapter to see it!

_ _

_Not my best manip ever, but you get the idea._

* * *

 

Daisy stood by the window overlooking the Avengers’ facility in New York. She didn’t know how they’d discovered that she was building an undercover team of powered people, but they’d asked her here for a meeting to discuss it.

Yesterday’s meeting had gone fairly well, and she knew she could count on the Avengers’ cooperation if something came up that was bigger than her team could handle. Then they’d asked her to stay for one more meeting today. She agreed, but when she asked why they hadn’t answered.

A storm appeared to be building outside. Or maybe someone was manipulating the weather, because clouds didn’t normally swirl like that. Oh, wait…

Lightning flashed and she saw a beam of light touch down on the other side of the facility, out of her line of sight. Did Thor have some reason to want to meet her? Or maybe Lady Sif was still concerned about Inhuman powers?

A short time later, Captain Rogers entered the meeting room. Right behind him were Thor, Lady Sif… and Loki. Daisy immediately dropped into a defensive position, watching warily.

“No, please, Lady Skye,” Sif spoke up immediately, holding out her hands in a gesture of openness. “We mean you no harm.”

Daisy relaxed marginally and nodded. “Sorry. For a moment I thought… nevermind. Jemma is well, I hope?”

“Yes, indeed. She is very happily exploring Asgard’s library.” Sif’s expression softened at the mention of her soulmate.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Skye smiled a little. “Well, then what can I do for you?”

“Captain Rogers shared with us the news of your new team, Agent Johnson,” Thor spoke up. “We wished to meet with the leader of such a group; we were curious about your powers but also thought that perhaps we could help each other out.”

“We were not aware that there were more Midgardians who had gained such through Terrigenesis,” Sif added. “But you do seem to be much more in control than when last we met.”

“Yeah. Long story; basically, there’s a subculture of people that followed the family lines of the people the Kree originally altered and have allowed some of those who pass tests to undergo transformation,” Daisy explained briefly. “I met with some of them, and my powers are fully under my control.”

“That is good. We have long believed that Kree tampering never led to anything good. Even the Kree admitted they were working to make weapons,” Thor replied with a nod. “In that case, we have a proposition for you. We would like you to accept Loki as a part of your team. While he cannot overtly work to make amends to your people, we believe he could do so as part of a covert team.”

Daisy raised an eyebrow skeptically. But rather than addressing either Thor or Sif, she turned her attention to Loki. “Assuming I said yes, is this something you want?”

Loki scoffed at her. “What I want is hardly relevant in the face of the All-Father’s righteous command,” he answered in a condescending tone. “If he has decreed that I work with mere mortals to undo damage to their world, who am I to refuse?”

“Loki,” Thor admonished in a tone of disapproval, but he stopped speaking when Daisy raised her hand.

“Yeah, yeah, I get that we all have problems when parents try to dish out punishment,” Daisy snapped back. “I’ll see your ‘Daddy Issues’ and raise you a ‘My Mother Tried To Kill Me.’ Now will you please just answer the question I asked?”

Both Sif and Thor had braced at her words, anticipating an explosion from Loki. But the trickster just studied Daisy’s face for a long moment before a smile slowly lit his features. He turned to look at Thor for a moment, “Oh, I do like her.” He took two steps forward and took a knee before Daisy, looking up at her with his fist to his chest. “I offer myself and my services to you and your team, if you will have them.”

Torn with indecision, Daisy regarded him quietly for a moment. Coulson was going to hate this. They’d probably end up yelling at each other. Violence was a real possibility, especially if May ever came back. But something in the back of her mind was telling her to accept. “I will accept your offer, provided that you swear to do no further harm to my team, to SHIELD, and to the people of this world in as much as it can be avoided.”

Loki smirked for a moment, then nodded. “I give you my word,” he agreed and held up his hand. Daisy took it, but the moment his large palm enfolded her small hand they both gasped. Daisy jerked back, watching in shock as green and gold swirling runes etched themselves painfully under her skin.

Loki stared at his own palm in wonder as blue and black runes rippled into place for him as well. “My soulmate,” Loki whispered before Daisy could even form a coherent question. “All these long centuries alone, to find you now when I am but a shadow of myself…”

Daisy shook her head slowly and stepped a little closer to where Loki still knelt. “We’re all broken, in our own ways,” she whispered back.

“Well, um, we’ll just excuse ourselves,” Captain Rogers stammered out, his eyes wide at the scene before him. “If you need anything, Agent Johnson, don’t hesitate to call. But, well, I’ll be sure you’re left alone otherwise.” He pushed Thor towards the door, his habitual courtesy showing when he paused short of touching Sif and just gestured her politely to the exit.

Left alone, Loki began to relax. He looked up at Daisy and saw her examining her palm again. “So, this is what Asgardian soulmarks look like?” she asked curiously.

“Indeed,” he answered. He held up his hand, showing her identical marks just in different colors. “The runes show our names and family lines, meeting here,” he showed her on his own hand, not daring to touch her again without her consent. “They appear on each in their mate’s colors.”

“I’m sorry,” Daisy said after a moment. She took a half-step backwards again, fighting the pull of the bond telling her to throw herself into his arms. “I’m sure you never wanted a ‘mere mortal’ as your soulmate, powers or not.”

“There was a time when that would have been true,” Loki began, his voice gentling as he caught a glimmer of tears in her dark eyes before she turned away. “But the more time I spend here on Midgard, the more I find that its people surprise me. Please, Lady Skye,” he said softly, recalling Sif’s use of her name, “won’t you give me a chance?”

“It’s Daisy,” she said softly after a moment. She swiped at her eyes and took a deep breath before turning to face him. “Daisy Johnson.”

Loki tilted his head slightly. “Yet you did not correct Sif?”

She shook her head. “I would have, when the moment was right. But she called me by the name I was using the first time we met and I know she hasn’t had the opportunity to be told otherwise. So I didn’t make a big deal out of it.”

“You changed your name?” Loki’s tone was genuinely curious. Seeing her beginning to relax in his company, Loki got to his feet slowly and in as non-threatening a manner as possible. Her eyes watched his movement carefully, but he only stepped back and clasped his hands behind his back in a relaxed stance.

“I’m an orphan,” she told him bluntly. “I grew up in orphanages and short-term foster homes. Only last year did I first find out that my parents were alive but also that they… weren’t exactly pleasant people. Losing me kind of drove them mad.” It wasn’t the whole truth, but it was enough for a short explanation. “Last spring my mother tried to kill me, because I was in the way of her plans. My father killed her before she could kill me, saving my life. But he had still committed many crimes, had many deaths on his hands. So we erased his memories, gave him a new life and a chance to do some good without the madness. In his memory, I’ve gone back to the name he gave me when I was a baby.”

Her eyes shimmered, pain etched in her expression as she finished, and Loki couldn’t help himself anymore. He stepped close and gently took her into his arms. “I understand,” he murmured. “It matters little to me what name you wear. But never again will your enemies be allowed close enough to harm you. I will see to your safety.”

Daisy bristled, her hands resting on the leather armor covering his chest as she looked up at him. “You can’t fight my battles for me,” she denied. “I won’t be some sheltered princess, locked away and kept safe. People need my help, and no one - even my soulmate - is going to stop me from doing my job.”

“Then I shall aid you to the best of my abilities,” Loki promised her smoothly. He watched her as she smiled a little, nodding. “I have but one request, for the moment,” he added in a low tone.

“And what’s that?” she asked, almost caught in his sharp gaze as she continued to look up at him.

“May I kiss you, my Lady?”

His husky voice rolled over her, making her shiver in anticipation. “Yes,” she whispered. Loki bent his head and captured her lips with his own, arms folding around her more tightly in support when her knees went weak.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered when their lips parted, and Loki chuckled. “It’s not going to be an easy job, working with me,” she informed him gently. “My boss is quite probably going to want to kill you. He’s not going to be happy with me coming back with you in the first place, and for you to be my soulmate might actually drive him to drink,” she mused thoughtfully. “But I think we can do some good in this world, together. Are you good with that?”

“For you, my dearest Lady Daisy,” Loki replied, his silvery tone sending shivers through her again, “I would face all the trials of this world and any other. I would be honored to work by your side.”

She smiled, a small, secretive smile. “I’m glad.” Without another word, she rose up on her toes and pulled him into another kiss to seal the deal. Phil really might want to kill them both, but in that moment she knew it would be worth it.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1792 words; easily under my limit. :) Please let me know what you think! And if you have pairing requests, please let me know. I make no promises, but I will certainly consider them and see what I can do!


	6. Everyone Ready? (Skye/Jemma/Steve)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sweets requested a Steve/Skye/Jemma. This is what I came up with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Ozhawk for helping me keep this under my word limit!

I didn't have time for a manip this week. But Chris! :)

* * *

 

 

Skye had never regretted a decision so much as the day Jemma got sucked into the Monolith.

She rubbed absently at the soulmark on her arm, Jemma’s words from the first time they’d met. Once the crisis was over and they actually had a chance to talk about it, they discovered that they shared a third. Each of them had a soulmark on their left arm and one across their back, which could make for interesting bonding gymnastics, depending on where their third’s marks were.

They had agreed to wait for their third to turn up before completing the bond. Jemma had rattled off statistics and Skye had ultimately agreed, if only to keep their relationship balance in a better position than two of them trying to bond alone. Incomplete bonds were notoriously unstable, and the team couldn’t handle that.

But damn it, now she wished she had the bond active! If only so that she’d know Jemma was alive. Her mark hadn’t changed yet, and that was the only thing keeping her hope alive for the past two weeks since Jemma had disappeared. If she’d known they’d have to wait more than two years for their third, she might’ve insisted!

“Look, AC, I get it. You don’t want to get anyone else involved if you don’t have to,” Skye grumbled, pacing back and forth across Coulson’s office. “But my mark hasn’t changed in two weeks! Jemma’s still alive, she has to be! So we need to find a way to get her back!”

“I know, Skye. I know,” Coulson replied, his tone conciliatory. “I just don’t think calling in the Avengers is the way to go.”

“I’m not suggesting calling in the Avengers,” Skye protested. “I just think that we don’t know enough about Kree technology; we should contact Thor to see if someone else does!”

Coulson closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “I’ll think about it, okay?”

* * *

In the end, she didn’t leave it up to Coulson. Mack agreed with her and invoked his authority as Head of Alien Artifacts to call in assistance. So Skye contacted Dr. Foster, who promised to get word to Thor asap.

Two days later help arrived in the form of Thor, Dr. Foster, an Asgardian scholar named Runa… and Captain America escorting them.

“Thank you all for coming,” Mack greeted the visitors, shaking hands with everyone. “Please, come this way.”

Skye was already in the containment room housing the Monolith - though well away from the casing that held it - when Mack and their guests arrived. She watched quietly as Runa moved to study the monolith closely, pacing around it. The monolith didn’t react to her.

“You say it turns liquid and pulls people inside of it?” Runa asked finally.

“It did with our team member,” Mack confirmed. “We have video, if you’d like to see it.”

“And why do you believe that he is still alive inside there?” she asked, her tone a strange mixture of aloof and curious.

“Because she’s my soulmate, and my mark hasn’t faded as it would if she were dead,” Skye spoke up, pinning the scholar with a fierce look.

Runa blinked, then nodded. “My apologies, my Lady. I did not mean to offend,” she said, offering her a brief bow. “I will view your recording and see what can be determined,” she promised.

Skye quickly set up the video and stepped back to allow Runa to watch. She didn’t really want to see it again.

“You are Lady Skye?” Thor asked quietly as he and Jane moved to stand beside her. Captain America stayed by the door, clearly there more to observe than anything else. “I believe Sif mentioned you some months ago.”

“I am. How is Sif? Well, I hope.” She turned to smile at them both. “Dr. Foster. It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“Likewise,” Jane answered, smiling. “But just Jane is fine.” She pulled Skye into a sudden, surprising hug. “I’m so sorry your soulmate is missing. It must be so difficult.”

Skye hid her face against Jane’s shoulder for a moment,  working to keep her expression neutral. “Thank you,” she murmured. “She’s not dead. She can’t be. I won’t accept anything else.”

“Why can she not be dead, Lady Skye?” Thor asked.

“Because we haven’t met our third yet,” Skye answered in a low tone. “She has to be okay. We knew we’d meet him together; our marks match up too well.”

While they talked, Runa had finished watching the video and began setting up several small devices around the Monolith. She examined the readouts briefly, then shook her head. “Currently, the device is inert. Is there anyone else to whom it will react?”

Mack scowled. “We don’t know. I haven’t let anyone else get close enough to the damn thing; I wouldn’t want it to break containment again.”

“It will probably react to me,” Skye spoke up. “Lincoln told me that their legends say it could end us all…”

Runa frowned in confusion. “Why you, specifically?”

Skye sighed. “Because I’ve been through Kree Terrigenesis. I have altered DNA.” Without waiting, Skye approached the Monolith. When she was within about a foot of the containment unit, the “rock” dissolved and heaved itself in her direction, stopped by the walls. She stepped back quickly and a few moments later, it returned to its inert state.

“Fascinating,” Runa murmured, studying her data readings. “Very unusual.” She looked up at Skye. “May I scan you briefly, my Lady?” she asked. “I would like to see if it’s responding to something about you that is not readily detected.

Skye shrugged and agreed, willing to allow almost anything to get Jemma back.

After running scans on Skye, then on Mack and Jane for comparison, Runa went back to her data readouts. Skye returned to her computer and her self-appointed task of reviewing all information the Inhumans had accumulated on Kree devices; Lincoln shared it when Skye asked.

Eventually Mack took Thor and Jane to find lunch for the group. They returned a while later, but Skye put her sandwich down after just a few bites. It reminded her too much of how Jemma always popped up with a sandwich and some fruit when she was working. Fortunately, Steve, Thor and Jane were all sitting around a side table, talking quietly and Runa ate quickly while studying the devices.

“Hey,” Mack’s soft voice interrupted her attempt to work. “We’ll get her back, Tremors. But you need to eat; imagine what she’ll say to you when she hears you’ve been neglecting yourself,” he teased her.

Skye chuckled weakly. “She’ll wonder again how I ever managed to survive twenty four years without her.” Skye looked at the sandwich again, tears stinging her eyes. Mack just folded her into his arms without comment; she silently thanked whatever higher power existed for giving her a friend to support her while her soulmate was missing. Mack had a penchant for taking care of people in distress, and she was currently benefiting.

“I think I have an idea,” Runa spoke up a few hours later, immediately garnering everyone’s attention. “I believe this is the gateway to a pocket-dimension of sorts,” she began. “Probably meant to hold dangerous criminals or failed experiments. Who knows what could be living inside there, locked away from the rest of the universe.” She shook her head, expression concerned.

“Is that why it reacts to the Inhumans?” Jane asked, following along quickly. “Because their genetics have been altered and it recognizes the signs of Kree tampering?”

Runa inclined her head. “I believe so, yes, Lady Jane,” she agreed. “But it can also be triggered to open. It functions on a particular vibrational frequency, which causes the gateway to open.”

“So we could get someone out?” Skye’s voice was hopeful.

“Maybe. It will definitely allow someone else in, but it isn’t designed to facilitate passage in the other direction.”

“But Jemma’s smart. She’ll have stayed nearby to the best of her abilities, in case the gateway opened again,” Mack countered.

“I say we open it and see what happens,” Thor proposed. “We shall be at the ready in case what comes through isn’t your missing soulmate, Lady Skye. But I believe the attempt is worthwhile.”

Mack looked concerned, mentally debating both sides before finally nodding his agreement. “Alright. Give me half an hour to seal off this part of the base and get some supplies in here for us. Just in case.”

“We’ll need at least that long to find a way to duplicate the required frequency to open it,” Runa replied wryly.

“Do you know what the frequency is?” Skye asked as Mack left the room.

“Well, yes, but we don’t have the devices needed to emit it for a projected length of time.”

“What about a short burst?” she persisted.

Runa looked thoughtful. “I believe so.”

Skye nodded. “Okay. Aim it at me. If I can sort out what it feels like, I can reproduce it.”

“How?” Jane asked.

Skye smiled. “That’s my power. I produce and manipulate vibration.”

Jane’s eyes went wide with excitement, but Thor’s hand on her arm and the look in Skye’s eyes prevented her from asking the questions on the tip of her tongue. Then the moment was lost when Skye’s phone rang. Jane sighed and went to help Runa devise something combining Asgardian technology and the devices already in the room to give Skye the sample frequency needed.

“Yes, Director?” Skye answered, knowing that Coulson was still keeping his identity from the Avengers.

“Skye, I just talked to Mack. Are you sure this is a good idea?” Coulson sounded concerned.

“Not really,” Skye answered quietly. “But I’m willing to take the risk. I think we all are, down here. We have Thor and Captain America, plus Dr. Foster and Runa for scientific details, and Mack and I for the team. I need her, and I’m willing to risk a lot to get her back.”

“Alright, Skye. Just be careful.” Coulson sighed. “I’m ordering that wing of the base isolated entirely and we’ll be monitoring the video feeds to judge when it’s safe to open the lockdown. If something goes wrong, you’re on your own.”

“Yes, Sir. I understand, and I’ll make sure the others do as well.”

“Good luck, Skye. I hope this works,” Coulson said as he disconnected the call. Skye sighed again and put her phone away. Turning back to the others, she relayed the Director’s decision to isolate them.

“I do not believe that shall be a problem,” Thor replied. Jane looked a little less certain, but shrugged; clearly putting her faith in Thor’s ability to protect her. “We shall continue as planned.”

It wasn’t quite that simple. The frequency needed, directed at Skye, knocked her on her butt. Even brief exposure caused a major headache and it took her several moments to regain her equilibrium.

“No, I’m alright,” she insisted as Mack and Jane helped her back to her feet. “I can do this.”

“You’re sure you can duplicate the exact frequency?” Runa asked.

Simultaneously, Jane said, “Skye, you’re bleeding.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at a trickle of blood from Skye’s nose.

“It doesn’t matter. I’d accept worse if it means getting Jemma back,” Skye insisted. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to call for Jemma while I keep it open, though.”

“I’ll do it,” Jane offered. “We don’t sound anything alike, but maybe a human voice will be enough.”

“Thank you,” Skye murmured as Jane moved away. Thor stayed right by Jane’s side, not wanting her too close to the Kree device alone; Mack and Runa bracketed Skye.

“I want to see what happens as much as you do,” Runa told Skye, “but I’m not going to let you kill yourself.”

Skye’s jaw firmed and her dark eyes turned hard. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Everyone ready?” The chorus of affirmatives - from everyone except Captain America, who just blinked at her - had Skye reaching out towards the Monolith and focusing her power.

The pulse of vibration echoed around the room even as the Monolith began to swirl open. Skye only faintly heard Jane’s voice calling out for Jemma, only distantly felt Mack’s arm go around her waist when she began to waver on her feet. The vibration required caused the pounding in her head to multiply again and again, but her only thought was on keeping the gate open long enough to let Jemma out. Any thoughts she could spare from that one goal were sent out to Jemma, in hopes that a call through the bond would work if sound didn’t.

* * *

There was no time for Steve to speak to Skye when she said the words on his arm. It only took a moment to realize that if the missing woman was Skye’s other soulmate that she likely was his as well.

It surprised him when he felt a faint tugging in his mind, coming from Skye. He realized what she must be doing as he began to feel a much fainter answering pull from the direction of the artifact. With Skye in capable hands for the moment, Steve strode towards the Monolith to add his efforts to Skye’s.

Steve reached into the swirling mass that was the gateway, silently willing the potential soulbond to help him. He braced himself on this side, but kept his arm through the gateway; long minutes of silent effort were eventually met with the feel of a hand clasping his. He pulled, fighting the gateway that wanted to pull him in rather than allow someone out.

Just as he pulled back enough to see a delicate, feminine hand clasped in his a shockwave burst from the Monolith. Skye screamed and collapsed, unconscious. Steve pulled hard and felt a body impact against his own as they were all thrown away from the containment unit by the explosion.

“Skye!” Mack called as he caught her crumpling form. “Shit,” he swore, seeing blood trickling from both nostrils. Runa and Jane converged on Skye, checking her over as best they could.

Steve, on the other hand, had Thor by his side immediately. The soldier was covered in fragments of rock from the shattered gateway, and Thor’s hand went to Mjolnir’s handle when the gravel stirred. Steve shook his head at Thor and sat up. He looked down at the woman held tightly in his arms and then over towards Skye.

He frowned when he realized Skye was unconscious, but called out to Mack anyway. “Mack? Is this Jemma?”

Mack settled Skye gently to the floor and crossed the room to Steve, who gently brushed loose gravel away from the woman’s face. “Yeah,” Mack confirmed with a slow smile. “That’s her. Welcome back, Simmons,” he added as her eyes slowly blinked open.

Jemma’s body tensed as she realized she was being held by something, and she began to struggle almost immediately. “Shh, it’s alright,” Steve soothed her. “I’ve got you, you’re safe.”

His words caused her to still almost immediately. She blinked up at him and then took a deep breath. “Usually that’s my line,” she said after a moment. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” Steve replied. He looked up at Mack again, “How’s Skye?”

“Skye! Is she hurt?” Immediately Jemma pulled away from Steve, looking frantically around for Skye.

“Jemma!” Skye called weakly as her eyes fluttered open to the sound of her soulmate’s voice.

“Skye!” Jemma tried to scramble to her feet, but her legs wouldn’t support her. She would’ve crawled her way over, but Thor scooped her up into his strong arms and carried her while Mack helped Steve to his feet.

“Jems,” Skye whimpered. “Hurts. But you’re here.”

“I’m here,” Jemma murmured as Jane vacated her place beside Skye and Thor set Jemma down there. Steve quickly joined them.

“She’s here and she’s going to be okay,” Steve assured Skye. Her eyes lit up and she glanced at Jemma, who nodded confirmation.

“You’re not hearing things,” Jemma assured Skye, taking the tissue from Jane and dabbing at the blood on Skye’s face. “We finally found our third.”

Skye beamed, her expression joyful as she looked from Jemma to Steve. “Worth it,” she declared softly, before passing out again.

* * *

Skye woke briefly when Bobbi started the MRI scanner, complaining that it intensified the pain in her head. Bobbi shut off the machine quickly and administered the strongest sedative she dared, not running the scan again until she was certain Skye was deeply under.

Fortunately, there was no permanent damage.

Bobbi kept Skye and Jemma in the same room and allowed Steve - who stayed when the others left - to sit between their beds, knowing how difficult it would be to keep the soulmates separated.

Jemma woke first; she was unharmed, though sudden noises startled her and she said little. Steve spoke quietly to her, mostly just assuring her that she was safe. A few hours later, a soft groan announced Skye’s return to consciousness.

“Skye!” Jemma called, animating for the first time since she woke.

“Jemma?” Skye responded. “Not a dream?”

“I promise, it’s not a dream,” Steve answered, smiling.

“We’re finally together,” Jemma murmured.

“We waited for you,” Skye sighed. “But now, all of us… it’s nice.”

Steve chuckled. “Yes, very nice. And selfish though it may be, I’m glad I didn’t miss anything.”

“We didn’t think it was fair. But now… kiss us, please?” Jemma asked sweetly.

With a smile, Steve nodded. “I think I can do that.” He started with Jemma, since she’d asked. He leaned over her and caught her lips, pleased when she responded enthusiastically. Skye whistled from the other bed, grinning. “Perfect,” he murmured, trading smiles with Jemma as they parted.

“My turn?” Skye asked hopefully. Steve nodded and switched to her bed, avoiding the monitors. The kiss started lightly but she deepened it first, humming contentedly. “I agree,” she said when they parted. “Perfect.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3000 words exactly. This is the first time I've had trouble keeping it under the limit, though. So not bad overall!


	7. I Knew You Would Come (Daisy/Wanda)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was requested by Missmoonstone a while ago and more recently by 181001.

Aren't they cute together?

* * *

 

 “Coulson, things are getting bad out here!” Daisy called into her comm.

“I know. We’re doing what we can. Hang tight.”

Skye sighed and focused her power again. She was in a dead-end alley alone, having been cornered there by a wave of sentient robot things. Apparently someone had found the remnants of some of Ultron’s toys, swapped in a few toys from a wrecked Doombot, and once on they had turned out to be nearly as dangerous as the replicators from that old sci-fi show, Stargate.

If only she had an SG team behind her right now. Or, you know, anyone.

She was worried about her team, but thankfully she was the only one who had gotten cut off. They were all holed up together, and hopefully safer than she was.

A sudden flare of red light from above distracted Daisy and one of the bots managed to get a shot at her. She could only twist, try to take the shot somewhere non-fatal, and brace herself. But the impact came from a different direction and suddenly she was against the wall on one side of the alley. She blinked and looked up into a pair of piercing blue eyes.

“Sorry,” he apologized; she couldn’t quite place the accent, but definitely eastern European. “You looked like you could use a hand.”

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, Daisy turned in his grasp and knocked back another bot at the same moment a bolt of red hit it. “Thanks for the save,” she answered quickly. “Think we can hold the introductions until this is over?”

He grinned in answer and darted off again, moving faster than she could see. She just shook her head and followed him out of the alley while it was still clear. She looked up and caught sight of a slim woman on the roof and tossed off a quick salute in thanks as she ran.

The rest of the fight wrapped up quickly with the Avengers’ arrival. Daisy found her team shortly thereafter and sent most of them back to the transport for medical attention. Only Mack insisted on staying with her; they both knew that a confrontation with the Avengers would happen.

“Not leaving you to face the brunt of their attention alone, Tremors,” Mack told her; he was only a little scraped up from the fight. Nothing serious.

Daisy couldn’t help but smile at the nickname and nodded. “Alright, fine. I appreciate the backup. So how do you think we find them?”

“I’d imagine they’ll find us.” Mack shrugged.

Sure enough, a moment later Quicksilver arrived in a blur of motion. He grinned at her, waved, then sped off again. Daisy glanced at Mack, who just looked a little startled, and they decided it was better to stay where they were for the Avengers to find them. It wasn’t a long wait.

Captain America strode into the intersection where they waited, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch beside him. He stopped a few feet away from them and opened his mouth, but nothing emerged when Wanda kept moving. She didn’t stop until she stood right in front of Skye.

“I knew you would come,” she said with a gentle smile. “I have waited for this day for so long.” Daisy stared at her, wide-eyed and speechless for a long moment. Wanda was unconcerned, knowing the words would come at the right moment. She just continued on blithely. “You’re just as beautiful in person as in my vision, Quake. And I promise, I shall not leave you when you need me. Not ever.”

“Thank you,” Daisy finally managed to say. “You’re pretty amazing, yourself. I always knew you would be special, I just didn’t know how special.”

Wanda beamed and Daisy couldn’t help but smile.

“Wait, what just happened?” Cap broke in.

“My sister has found her soulmate,” Pietro said, grinning at Cap’s befuddlement.

Daisy tore her eyes away from Wanda’s with visible effort and turned to Captain America. “Thanks for the assistance, here. We heard that someone had robots gone out of control, but we weren’t expecting so many.”

“Fortunately, without an Ultron to act as a focal point, they weren’t anywhere near as coordinated,” Cap responded with a bemused expression. “Look, I know we should talk about this further. But I think it’s more important to give you and Wanda some time together. Can we set up a meeting of some kind?”

Daisy nodded. “I think that can be arranged. Here.” She handed him a small business card, one with just a phone number and an email address. The email was heavily secured and auto-forwarded messages to her “public” SHIELD email. Just in case anyone ever got the card that shouldn’t.

“Thank you. And, for whatever it’s worth… congratulations,” he offered. She smiled and nodded before returning her attention to Wanda.

“We have to get back to our transport,” Daisy said quietly. “We have injured team members. But… would you like to come along?”

“I would like that very much,” Wanda answered. She glanced at Cap and saw him nod. “Thank you.” She slipped her hand into Daisy’s and smiled at the flash of surprise on her soulmate’s face. “I already know that you like to touch, to be physical, Daisy,” she murmured softly. “I’m perfectly happy to give you the contact you need. And sometimes, I need it as well.”

“Anytime you’d like,” Daisy murmured back as they began to walk towards the SHIELD transport. “This is my teammate, Mack,” she said in a louder voice by way of introduction.

“Pleased to meet you, Mack,” Wanda said to the engineer with a brief smile.

“And you,” Mack replied, clearly uncertain about how to address her.

“You may call me Wanda, if you like,” the young woman said gently. “If you are friends with my Daisy, I would like for us to be friends as well.”

Mack smiled and accepted the comment with a nod. “I think that’s possible,” he agreed. He stepped into the quinjet as they arrived and waved at Daisy when she would’ve followed. “I’ll check on everyone and call you two in when it’s time to go.”

“Thanks, Mack,” Daisy answered with another smile. She let him go on ahead while she stayed outside with her soulmate. Just a few minutes of relative privacy would be nice.

The two women moved at the same time, taking each other into a comfortable embrace. Wanda leaned against Daisy lightly and they each held tight. “I am sorry I couldn’t find you sooner,” she said in a low voice. “I have seen that you suffered through much, and I wished I could be there for you then.”

Daisy blinked, but shrugged after a moment. “I think you’re going to have to tell me more about you, since you already seem to know a lot about me.”

“I shall,” Wanda agreed. “Anything you’d like to know.” She leaned back enough to look at Daisy seriously. “I will not keep secrets from you.”

“I appreciate that. I understand that some secrets are necessary,” she answered, smiling wryly at how much she’d changed since joining SHIELD. “But it’ll be nice to have at least one person in my life I can trust to not hide things from me.”

“I promise. May I kiss you, please?” Wanda asked sweetly. Daisy nodded, unable to deny what she wanted as well. Wanda’s hand came up to cradle Daisy’s face and two pairs of dark eyes closed as their lips met for the first time. It was sweet, soft and entirely comforting for both of them.

When Wanda pulled back, Daisy’s eyes opened to meet hers and they both smiled. Then Daisy pulled Wanda back in for a longer, deeper kiss, which Wanda returned happily. They remained twined together, trading kisses, until Mack stuck his head around the wall of the quinjet.

“Sorry to interrupt, ladies,” he called out, averting his eyes when he caught them kissing, “but it’s time to go.”

“We’ll be right in, Mack,” Daisy called back, chuckling at his obvious embarrassment. Wanda smiled, clearly unconcerned, and pulled back so Daisy could walk. Their fingers laced together as they walked towards the quinjet ramp, and they glanced at each other with happy smiles.

“Oh, and Daisy,” Mack added as they boarded the jet. “I’d really appreciate it if you don’t make me go through more bleach than Hunter already does…”

With a laugh and a wink to Wanda to indicate that she would explain later, Daisy nodded. “I think we can manage more discretion than Hunter. And if we can’t for whatever reason, I’ll clean it up myself.”

“Hmmf,” Mack huffed and then nodded. “Fine. Thank you.”

She rolled her eyes at him, then smiled. “Anything for my bestest teammate.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, a little nod to Ozhawk's headcanon that Mack is forever cleaning up after Hunter and Bobbi and whatever other couples happen to be in the Playground.
> 
> Well under my 2000 word limit. :)


	8. We're Not Doing This (Skye/Clint/Natasha)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Super hero soulmates. Skye meets Clint and Natasha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of quick notes. Timeline wise, this fic overlaps with the end of S2 of AoS as well as “Age of Ultron.” That said, there are a couple of universe changes. Firstly, Laura isn’t Clint’s wife, she’s his half-sister. His background in the current MCU is kind of sketchy, and I honestly find this more believable than the fact that he’s been hiding a wife for several movies. Secondly, Natasha does still flirt with Bruce Banner as in the movie, but more because she’s looking for an alternative to having a soulmate. Part of Bruce’s reasoning for turning her down is that he figured that out a while ago.
> 
> Additionally, because events are moving very quickly at this point in time, this story is a series of short scenes more than anything else. It kind of has to be, otherwise I’d have to change a lot more of canon.
> 
> This grouping was requested by Dancing_In_The_Rain.

Ozhawk graciously offered to share her manip, so I could get this chapter posted. :)

* * *

 

Clint and Natasha were sparring, both for training and to let off some steam. After Tasha’s trip to Sudan, they hadn’t yet found another lead on HYDRA. The pair of former agents were itching to get out into the field again, but for the moment there was nowhere to go.

Neither held back, knowing the other could take it. Natasha was faster, Clint was stronger; it was a good match for both. Abruptly, both froze as a burning sensation crawled over their skin. Tasha’s expression hardened as she concealed the pain and Clint’s eyes went wide for just a moment.

“What the fuck was that?” Clint demanded when the sensation passed.

“How the hell should I know?” Tasha snapped back as she assessed herself for unknown injuries.

“Shall I call Dr. Banner?” JARVIS asked politely.

“Not necessary, but we probably should go see him,” Clint replied. Natasha nodded and together they moved for the elevators.

~~~~~

“Soulmarks,” Bruce said after listening to their description of the sensation.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Clint deadpanned. “New soulmarks. At our ages.” Bruce just shrugged.

Natasha said nothing, only staring at Bruce in disbelief. She’d never had a soulmark, and honestly was glad of it. There was no one to be harmed by her missions, her training. To suddenly have one now… no. Just no.

But, as it turned out, they had not one but two. Clint’s comment, “What the fuck was that?” was inscribed in his familiar handwriting on the inside of her left knee. Her second mark, on her right shoulder blade, read, “I’m sorry, I’ll get out of your way.”

“We’re not doing this,” Clint said firmly. Natasha met his eyes and nodded.

“If we have a soulmate who’s just been born, we could be dead before we ever find them,” she answered, agreeing.

“And the team can’t afford the instability of us with an incomplete bond. So we just can’t.”

She nodded again and without another word they parted ways.

~~~~~

Skye sat in quarantine, staring at one of her new soulmarks. She had two; one on her left forearm and one on her right inner thigh. May promised to mention it to Jemma, maybe get her out of quarantine faster. After all, if fate had given her two soulmates after whatever had happened in the Kree city then she couldn’t be contagious or contaminated. And with Jemma’s interest in soulmarks, perhaps the young scientist would focus on Skye’s as a distraction from Trip’s death rather than whatever happened to Skye and Raina.

She didn’t expect much, though.

~~~~~

“Skye,” Coulson came to her a few weeks later, finding her sitting by Lincoln’s bedside as he recovered from surgery. They’d been back for a little over a week, but it would be a while before he fully healed from what HYDRA had done to him. Even if Inhumans healed faster than most people. “I need to talk to you.”

Nodding, she followed him. Surprisingly, they went to her office rather than his. “What’s up, DC?” she asked once the door was closed.

“I need you to go with Sam Koenig to a different base. He’ll explain on the way. But you need to be there.” He gently touched her forearm, where her mark hid under her shirt. “Koenig will explain more when you get there. But if you’re going to have a chance to meet them, it has to be now.”

“You know who my soulmates are?” she asked, startled.

“I recognize the handwriting. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. But I don’t want to say anything, just in case.”

She nodded. “I… alright. I’ll pack a bag.”

“Good. And Skye… be careful, okay?”

She smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

~~~~~

“Holy shit!” Skye exclaimed, seeing the Helicarrier nestled into its dock. “It’s gigantic!”

“I know,” Sam said proudly. “Come on, let’s get you settled.”

“On that…”

“Of course. Director Coulson said to be sure you were on board. We’re monitoring the Avengers’ activity and prepared to provide backup if needed. Once the order is given to launch, she’ll be in the air in ten minutes. So better that you’re already aboard.”

“I… alright. Do I get to explore?”

Sam chuckled. “As much as you like. Your clearance from the Director even gives you access to the bridge.”

“Awesome!”

When the order came to launch Skye was already on the bridge, busy monitoring news and live feeds in Sokovia from the communications station. She watched quietly as Fury swept onto the bridge, Hill and a whole crew right behind him. She only glared at the agent who tried to take over her station, though; he quickly found a place elsewhere.

She might not know how to fly but she’d be damned if anyone was going to keep her out of the loop. Hill gave her a strange look, but she met the older agent’s eyes with steely determination and after a moment Hill nodded.

Sokovia was chaos. Since she still held the communications station, it was Skye who broadcast the order for all pilots to scramble to their assignments, both fighter planes and transports. Followed quickly by the order for all nonessential personnel to get to the flight deck to help deal with the civilians being rescued from the floating city.

When the call came up from medical for anyone with even a hint of medical knowledge to help with triage, Skye headed out to help. Thanks to May’s training, she had a solid grasp of basic first aid. And she figured that way she could free up the real medics to help people with serious injuries.

It just so happened that Skye was the one to pick Agent Barton off the floor of the transport and help him into the Helicarrier. While he didn’t seem overly injured, he couldn’t stop staring at the body of the man he’d lain beside until they were out of sight. Still, better to check. “Are you hurt, Agent?” she asked in a low voice. Blue eyes snapped up to meet hers but he only mutely shook his head. She nodded back and gave him a small smile. “Alright. Do you need anything?”

He opened his mouth, about to answer, when suddenly Tasha was there on his other side. “I’ve got him, Agent,” she said dismissively. “Go mind the civilians.”

Skye blinked, recognizing the words from one of her soulmarks. “I’m sorry, I’ll get out of your way.” She watched closely for any sign that the woman recognized the words but she got no response.

Clint met Tasha’s eyes, saw the brief flash of incredulity followed immediately by pain. Then nothing. Her expression settled into her usual calm mask as she checked him for injuries.

Disappointed, Skye started to get up. Best to leave the two Avengers alone; even she, new as she was to SHIELD, knew that these two went a long way back. But her motion halted when Clint’s hand wrapped around her wrist. “No, please stay.” His eyes darted from Tasha’s to the young Agent’s, watching as dark eyes softened slowly. “We should talk about this,” he continued, looking from her back to Tasha again.

“We can’t. I can’t do this,” Natasha answered, refusing to look at the young woman sitting beside her partner.

“Why not?” Skye asked softly.

Nastasha cursed in Russian for a moment, then looked up to meet Skye’s eyes. “Because there’s far too much blood on my hands for someone as young and innocent as you look,” she answered in a steely tone.

“Innocent?” Skye scoffed. “Hardly. Product of the system; never had a home, spent a lot of time with short-term foster families. Joined the Rising Tide, then SHIELD. Found out that my dad’s not as dead as everyone thought, but he’s a monster. And then got dragged off by HYDRA agents and my insane father to go get super powers in an alien city. Then found out that my mother isn’t actually dead, either, and that we’re not entirely human. And I have field agent training, so my hands aren’t entirely clean either. Even if I don’t like killing people.”

“Wait, what?” Clint asked, startled.

“That’s the Cliff’s notes version of my life. But really, I’m not as innocent as you might think.”

“You can’t be more than twenty five.”

“Twenty six, actually. I just found out for sure recently, when I finally met my mother. Even my birth certificate - which is gone, so there’s no point in looking - was created by the orphanage.”

Clint smiled. “What’s your name, darlin’?”

“Skye.”

“I’m sure you don’t need or want another monster in your life, Skye,” Natasha told her. She moved to get up, but both Clint and Skye reached for her arms to stop her. She tensed, familiar with a dozen different ways to get out of their grasp but unwilling to hurt either of them.

“You’re right,” Skye answered bluntly. “But you’re not one. I don’t care what your life used to be; I care what you make it now. And you’re an Avenger. That makes you one of the good guys. Not a monster.”

Natasha shook her head, but didn’t pull away. “Listen to her, Tash,” Clint said softly. “It’s the same thing I’ve been telling you for years. The same thing Phil kept telling you before he died.”

Dark eyes quickly shifted to Clint, but his were firmly on Natasha. Skye shook head, promising herself that she would have _words_ with Coulson before too long. Despite her distraction, Skye felt it the moment Natasha stopped resisting. With a small smile, Clint pulled both women into his arms. “Where are you stationed, darlin’?” Clint asked Skye after a quiet moment.

“The Playground. But I was sent here to help out; my boss hinted that I would likely meet my soulmates here. I just didn’t think I’d wind up with two superheros.”

“We’re just people, at the end of the day.”

“Well, of course. But still.”

“You mentioned gaining powers,” Natasha spoke up for the first time in a while. “What are yours?”

“I manipulate vibrations. Caused a few earthquakes before I learned to control it. And an avalanche, once.”

“Sounds like fun,” Clint commented.

“It’s not all bad,” Skye conceded with a small smile.

“Pardon me, Agent Skye,” a voice broke into their discussion. Skye looked up and saw a young man standing diffidently to one side.

“Yes?”

“Your CO called. They need you back ‘Stateside. He said it was important.”

Skye sighed. She burrowed into Clint’s side for a moment before pulling away. “Duty calls, I suppose.” She looked from Clint to Natasha, her expression hard but her dark eyes held a vulnerable look. “Promise me you won’t disappear while I’m gone?”

Natasha hesitated, but Clint tightened his hand on hers as he looked at Skye. “We won’t. I promise. Come find us in New York when your assignment is done.”

Skye nodded. Before she could second guess herself, she leaned in and pressed her lips to Clint’s. His fingers tangled in her hair as he kissed her back; a kiss full of promise. When he released her, he pushed Skye gently in Tasha’s direction. Skye needed no encouragement, though, and she kissed the other woman too.

Breaking away before she could give in to temptation to linger, Skye got up and followed the agent waiting awkwardly nearby.

~~~~~

“Call them, Phil,” May said to Coulson. They’d watched silently as Skye withdrew from the team, dealing with the trauma of watching her father kill her mother to save her life. And then having to say goodbye to her father as well, knowing that he would be starting a new life but that he wouldn’t remember her existence. Skye needed people she could depend on, and the team had become too fractured over the past months.

She needed her soulmates.

“Alright. Alright. I don’t know how they’re going to take hearing from me after so long, though.”

“That’s your problem,” May answered with a shrug. “I’ll see you in a few weeks. And if she’s still like this, I’ll know exactly why.”

Coulson sighed and nodded. May left him alone in his office, and he spent a long time staring at the phone before finally picking it up and beginning to dial.

~~~~~

Skye was alone in the gym. Again. She’d promised May that she wouldn’t let her physical training lapse, so she faithfully practiced her tai chi every morning, followed by time spent sparring with whoever she could get to practice with her. Sometimes no one was around, so she worked with the punching bag instead.

She jumped when the door slammed open and could only stare in disbelief as Clint strode into the room, quickly followed by Natasha. She didn’t even have time to say hello before they wrapped her in their arms, cradling her rigid form between them.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart,” Clint murmured in her ear. “We heard about your parents, and I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to deal with. But we’re here now. You’re not alone.”

Her stiff posture softened as his words registered and Skye all but collapsed in their arms. Unable to help herself, she began to cry; harsh, wracking sobs as she finally allowed the pent-up grief an outlet. Natasha caught her, eased the younger woman to the mats and held her close as she cried. Clint settled in beside them, his chest a solid support for Skye’s back even as she leaned into Natasha.

They soothed her as best they could, not trying to stop her outpouring at all. They knew all too well that sometimes emotions just needed to vent.

When she calmed, Natasha gave her a gentle smile and wiped away her tears with a tissue Clint provided. Skye blinked, a little startled by Natasha’s change of attitude towards her in what had only been slightly over a week but felt so much longer.

“How did you even know?” Skye asked after a moment of quiet.

“Phil called us,” Natasha explained.

“And about damned time, too,” Clint grumbled.

“Why would he do that? I thought you weren’t supposed to know that he’s alive?” Skye was confused.

“Because you needed us. There’s not much that could convince him to change his mind once he’s made it, but he cares more for you than keeping the secret any longer,” Clint replied.

“Better this way than us finding out by accident because of our involvement with you, anyway,” Natasha added. “It would’ve happened sooner or later.”

Skye just nodded. She surely didn’t have the skills to lie to a spye of Natasha’s caliber. “I’m glad you came,” she whispered after a moment. “Thank you.”

“We’ll always be here when you need us, Skye,” Clint assured her softly. “That’s what soulmates are for, isn’t it?”

“I never really thought about it, but I suppose it is.”

“Come on,” Natasha said briskly. “You’re going to take a few days off.” She got to her feet and pulled Skye up with her.

“But…”

“No buts. Phil’s already approved it. We’re getting you out of here for a while.” Clint got to his feet and between them they maneuvered Skye out of the gym and towards the base’s exit.

“I don’t have anything packed!” she protested.

“Nothing to worry about it. We’ll take care of everything. Just trust us,” Clint assured her.

Skye looked like she wanted to protest, then she just nodded. “Alright. You… you came for me. I can trust you to look after me, too.”

All three of them signed out at the base’s security desk. Skye signed her name and the date, May 14, 2015. Seven weeks to her birthday; maybe she could celebrate with her soulmates. She’d have to explain the significance, of course. But it was something to look forward to.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2640 words. I allow 1000 words per character in the grouping, so I'm happily under my 3K limit.


	9. We Didn't Know It Was Broken (Daisy/Bucky)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy Johnson meets Bucky Barnes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **This pairing was requested by Divinefighter. I hope you like it!**

I haven't gotten around to making a manip yet. But I will!

* * *

 

Daisy looked around, expression horrified. The place - which was supposed to be a safe house, she was hoping to be able to bring Inhumans there - was trashed. Doors off their hinges, furniture shredded, dents in the walls… whoever had been here had done a thorough job.

Worse, none of the alarms had been triggered. The proximity detectors around the property had shown no problems when she used the key code Coulson had given her for access. She supposed it could be worse; the building still stood. The rest was probably fixable. But not quickly.

“Better luck next time,” she murmured to herself, turning back towards the front door. And froze, seeing someone standing in the doorway.

The figure was tall, dark haired and with a steely gaze that might have unnerved her had she not been used to May’s forbidding expression. He had a gun pointed at her, and at this range she wasn’t sure she could deflect a shot. So she slowly held up her hands, palms outward to show she was unarmed. Not that she needed a gun these days, but he didn’t know that.

“Don’t move,” he snapped at her in a rough voice and she froze again. Blinked at him, wondering if he would say the rest of the words that scrawled along her calf. Moments passed in silence, neither of them moving as he realized she obeyed his order. “Who are you and why are you here, in this broken place?”

Her voice froze in her throat as the rest of her soulmark words were spoken aloud. Her mind raced and for a moment she couldn’t come up with any words at all. Until finally she said, “My friend said I could use his place for a while; we didn’t know it was broken.” When he stared at her in silence, she added, “And, well, I think I might be your soulmate?”

She heard the click of the safety engaging and he lowered the weapon, though he kept it in-hand warily. She caught a glimpse of metal between the cuff of his jacket and the dark glove he wore on his left hand and it piqued her curiosity. “You would not be the first woman sent by HYDRA to speak those words to me,” he said carefully, eyeing her. “I won’t believe you until I can see your mark.”

She scowled when he mentioned HYDRA, but she nodded. “I can see how you’d be concerned. I can’t show you my mark without moving, though. It’s on my calf, under my boot.” He nodded, still eyeing her, and she took that as agreement. She lowered herself to the floor, unlaced her boot and pulled it off. Then rolled up the leg of her tac suit to reveal the dark lettering along the curve of her calf muscle and extended her leg towards him to look.

Given that he’d spoken first, it would have been pretty difficult to fake the mark, and she watched his mind work through that conclusion as well. He relaxed slightly and offered her a small smile, one which almost looked painful. Or like he didn’t quite remember how such an expression was supposed to feel.

“I’m Daisy,” she introduced herself as she adjusted her clothing again and returned her boot to her foot.

He seemed at a loss for a moment, then nodded. “I’m… James. I think, anyway.”

She nodded sympathetically. “I understand how that goes. I didn’t know my real name until a few months ago. How long were you held captive by HYDRA?”

“It’s 2015?” he asked, and she nodded. “Then, I think… something like 70 years?”

Daisy stared at him, shock written in her face. “And think, you don’t look a day over thirty,” she quipped, falling back on humor as her mind struggled to process. That would make him… as old as Captain America? “Wow, um, okay,” she stammered, and he cracked a small smile that none the less looked genuine. “You have a really nice smile, at least when you’re not thinking about it.” She got to her feet slowly. “I think we need to talk, and this is definitely not a good place to do it.”

“What do you suggest, doll?” Daisy blinked again, startled by the name and the fact that he had a distinctly Brooklyn accent when he wasn’t being all growly.

“I’m part of a group of agents that survived the HYDRA invasion and are still trying to help people.” She saw him tense again but pressed on. “We have a small base nearby. I promise, no one will try to harm you or make you stay against your will. I just want to talk. If you decide to, you can leave at any time.”

“You have enough authority to keep that promise?” he asked after hesitating a moment.

“I do. And I have no reason to lie to you; that’s hardly a way to build a good relationship, you know?”

He actually chuckled, relaxing again as he nodded. “Alright. If you lead, I’ll follow. For the moment, at least.”

“Good.” She nodded and moved towards him, as he still blocked the door. He stepped back and let her out, following her away from the building.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Though she didn’t see another vehicle as she arrived at the base, somehow Daisy was unsurprised when James approached her only minutes after she stopped at the door to wait for him. She just smiled and held her badge up to the reader, hearing the lock click open. As she reached for the door, James beat her to it and held it open for her.

“That might take a little getting used to,” she said idly as she led the way into the building.

“I can stop, if it bothers you,” he said immediately.

“I didn’t say to stop,” she answered softly. “Just that I’m not used to it. Manners aren’t what they used to be.”

“How to treat a girl right might be one of the few things I enjoy remembering,” James said in a low voice.

“Then by all means, continue,” Daisy said gently. “And don’t mind me if I’m a little startled sometimes.”

“Deal,” he agreed. He followed her into a small lounge area. It looked rather cosy, actually. Cushy furniture and a big tv at one end.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Whatever’s handy,” he agreed. He took the bottle of water she offered him, pleased to see that it was still sealed. Then he scowled at himself for thinking that she might be trying to drug him somehow. Still, old habits…

“I promise, it’s just water. You’re safe here.”

“I’m not entirely sure I can believe that.”

She frowned but nodded, accepting that. “Would it help you if I tell you what my primary goals are?” He nodded, and so she began to explain about the Inhumans. About how contaminated fish oil tablets were causing people to change; civilians who had no idea that they had the Inhuman modified genetics. That she was trying to find safe places for them, so they could learn to control their powers and recover from the trauma of the transformation.

“Why you?” he asked when she wrapped up. She looked at him quizzically and he clarified, “Why are you the one assigned to this? Why is it so important to you, and not just to your group?”

She smiled, a little sadly, and her dark eyes held shadows he didn’t understand. “Because it happened to me. Last spring. That was before the fish oil problem, but I went through the transformation myself. We didn’t yet know what caused it or what would happen. We only knew that other people who had come into contact with the device that changed me died from it. Only I didn’t. I changed. I was quarantined; no one knew what had happened or what to expect.”

A light dawned in his blue eyes and he nodded. “So you want to help others, so they don’t have to cope alone the way you did.”

“Yeah. I do,” she admitted.

“Would you help me, too?”

She tilted her head, a little confused. “Of course; I didn’t even think to ask. Did you go through something like this? Did HYDRA experiment with you?”

He shook his head. “Not quite like you. But, well…” With a sigh, he stripped off his glove, revealing a metal hand. And then followed with the jacket; the short-sleeved shirt beneath revealing the full arm, including the red star that he couldn’t quite get rid of. “I’m…”

“The Winter Soldier. James Barnes,” she breathed, eyes wide.

“I don’t wanna hurt you, doll,” he said quietly. “I don’t wanna hurt anyone, except maybe those HYDRA bastards. But sometimes I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know which thoughts are mine and which were programmed by them.”

“I believe you,” she answered quietly. She stood from her seat and moved to stand in front of him. He had to look up at her, but he found that he didn’t mind. Especially when she carefully wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “We’ll get you help. I promise. I’ll do everything I can.”

“You really want a guy like me for a soulmate, doll?” he asked, eyes vulnerable. “I’m all kinds of messed up. I ain’t good for you.”

She placed her fingers against his lips, quieting him. “I’ve got my own scars. More than physical ones, too. But you’re my soulmate, and I do believe that means something. We can help each other. Think of it this way; you were in HYDRA’s possession for longer than I’ve been alive, before I was even born. If we weren’t right for each other now despite everything, that wouldn’t have happened. So yes. I really want you for my soulmate. Messed up or not.” She smiled.

He pulled her close, and she went willingly; let him press his face into the curve where neck met shoulder and just wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you,” he murmured after a moment.

“You’re welcome,” she answered quietly. When he looked up at her to return her smile, her eyes met his. She moved slowly, giving him every opportunity to move away before her lips met his. But he wasn’t running, more reassured by her earlier words than she could know. He kissed her back, soft and sweet, until she backed away to catch her breath.

“Stay with me?” she asked, and he caught a flash of something in her eyes. Uncertainty, maybe. So he tried to reassure her much as she had for him.

“Always.”

 

 


	10. A Regular Firecracker (Bucky Barnes/Buffy Summers - Xover)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MCU & BTVS Crossover short.
> 
> Bucky/Buffy. WinterSlay(er)?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Author’s Note: If you are not at least passingly familiar with the mythos of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you may want to skip this one. I’m using primarily Buffy’s point of view, and I’ve glossed over a LOT of her history.**  
>   
>  For those who were/are fans of the series, this story ignores anything that happened after the series finale. I haven’t followed the comics at all, so I just followed a logical progression regarding what would’ve happened after Sunnydale. Also, remember that over a decade has passed since those events, so if I’m a little off on the facts… well, Buffy never did have the best memory for details.

_Somehow, this seems to define their early relationship for me. He looks determined and she looks amused._

* * *

 

Buffy strolled through a park outside of Cleveland, enjoying the quiet night. There were seldom vampires or demons to be found in the state anymore, and teams of Slayers and support staff had spread out to other states as well as other parts of the world over the past several years. Perhaps one day there would be no need for Slayers.

It took a little while for her to realize that she was being followed. Whomever it was didn’t register to her supernatural senses, but they weren’t being entirely silent either.

She spun in place, one hand on the stake hiding in her jacket pocket. She never went anywhere without a weapon, after all. She quickly located the person shadowing her and pinned him with her gaze. “You may as well come out. I know you’re there.”

She saw the figure freeze for a moment before slowly stepping into the pool of light cast by one of the park lamps. He held up his hands, indicating that he held no weapon and she gasped; the light glinted off shining metal covering his hand. Artificial limb? Her eyes swept over him; he had shaggy, dark hair and a solid build. He wasn’t particularly tall, but definitely still taller than her.

Though that wasn’t particularly hard.

As she studied him, he did the same with her. Still, he didn’t appear to be sizing her up for a fight, so small favors. She tapped her foot, waiting for him to say something. When he did, it wasn’t what she was expecting.

“No wonder they didn’t want to tangle with you,” he said with a smirk. “You’re a regular firecracker, aren’t you?”

Buffy chuckled, relaxing as she recognized the words of her soulmark. Probably not here to kill her, then. “Well, yeah. But who are ‘they’ in this case?”

“HYDRA.” He paused. “You probably don’t know.”

“No, I do. I’m not big into tech, but I have some friends who went bonkers when all of SHIELD’s data hit the public sector. Including a bunch of HYDRA files,” she replied. Then she grinned. “So, they didn’t want to mess with me, hmm?”

“Not directly, if they could help it,” he answered, moving a little closer. He had gorgeous blue eyes, she couldn’t help but notice. “You were on the elimination list for the Insight launch. That’s… actually why I came.” She tensed, and he noticed it immediately. “No, not like that. I… I need help. And I hoped someone HYDRA wanted out of the way, someone with powers that didn’t have ties to SHIELD could be trustworthy enough to help me…”

Buffy considered that. “Makes sense, I suppose. So what do you need from me?”

He hesitated. “I’m not sure how much of this conversation we should be having out in the open…”

“Soulmate or not, I’m not taking you home straight off,” she said flippantly, and he suppressed a smile. “But we could go back to the training center,” she offered.

“Training center?” he asked, both curious and concerned.

“Yeah. Some friends and I set it up to train all the Slayer Potentials that were activated…” she trailed off as she saw the confusion in his eyes. “Girls with powers like mine,” she finished, shaking her head.

“I see. I suppose it’s safe enough, then.” He seemed accepting; she wondered if he was that desperate for someone to help or if he assumed the Slayers couldn’t actually hurt him. He might be in for a surprise.

She headed towards the Center, smiling a little as he fell into place beside her. “I’m Buffy, but I suppose you know that.”

“Yeah. I’m… James.”

“You don’t seem too sure about that,” she quipped lightly.

He paused, then muttered, “I’m not.” She heard him quite clearly, though she supposed most people probably wouldn’t have.

“Sounds like you have a complicated story to tell,” she said, her tone gentle and entirely without sarcasm for once.

He nodded and she smiled again. They finished the walk in silence, both using their senses to make sure they remained alone and unthreatened. It didn’t take long.

Willow was in the foyer putting on her coat when Buffy walked in the door. Buffy smiled at her, “Hey, Wills.”

“Hey, Buffy, welcome…” Her expression turned to one of stark fear when James stepped into the building. “Behind you, look out!”

Buffy whirled around, James doing the same. But there was no one else there and both relaxed immediately. Buffy turned back to Willow, confused.

“Look out for what?” Then she realized that Willow was looking right at James. “It’s okay; I brought him here.”

“But Buffy… that’s the Winter Soldier!”

Buffy frowned slightly. “Um… what?”

“The Winter Soldier! The man who fought Captain America in DC a couple of months ago! See his arm?”

“Oh. I thought he seemed a little familiar,” Buffy said, her tone not particularly concerned. “He’s not here to hurt anyone, Wills. He needs help. And… he’s my soulmate,” she finished very quietly.

“Oh!” Willow’s eyes went wide and she pulled Buffy into a hug. “Congratulations! Well, if you think he’s safe, I’ll trust you.”

“Maybe I should go. I’m sorry if I…”

“No!” Buffy interrupted him, grabbing his arm before he could step back out the door. “No, please, don’t go.”

“She’s right, doll. I’m dangerous.”

With a snort, Buffy shook her head. “So am I. So what?” He just blinked at her, not expecting that response. “Come on. You were going to tell me what happened, though now that I know who you are I can probably guess at some of it.”

“Maybe. Alright, fine.” He reluctantly acquiesced.

“You need me to stay, Buffy?” Willow asked.

With a shake of her head, Buffy waved away the question. “Nah, I got this. There’s snacks in the lounge. The girls have mostly gone out for the night, but the late shift should be on duty. It’s fine. Go home, see your girlfriend, get some sleep.”

“Okay. But I wanna hear about it tomorrow!” With another hug for Buffy, Willow left.

“You have a whole team of people?” Bucky asked quietly. “How many people are there with powers like yours?”

Buffy considered his question thoughtfully as she led the way to the lounge. She pulled a couple of bottles of water out of the fridge before flopping on a comfy couch and waving him to join her. “Normally, only one. The history of the Slayer is such that while there are usually several potential carriers alive at any one point in time, only one Slayer is ever on active duty. But a few years ago, we changed all that. We faced an enemy so dangerous that we knew I’d need help. So we found a way to activate the Slayer Potentials.” She made a face. “All of them, regardless of age or location.” She sighed. “So, ultimately we built this place. To bring them here for training, how to use their abilities and to make sure they understand the responsibility to use those powers to protect mankind.”

“You make it sound like there’s some kind of magic involved in the whole thing.”

Buffy laughed. “Yeah, I suppose you could say that there is. Slayers are normal girls until they’re called, usually. Or, at least, I was.”

“How old were you when that happened?” he asked quietly.

“Fifteen,” she answered in a low tone. “I’m the oldest Slayer in history at thirty four.”

Bucky sucked in a breath, whistling softly between his teeth. “You’re older than you look,” he said finally.

She tilted her head slightly, looking at him. “Slayer regeneration affects my aging process, apparently. I wouldn’t really know, though. Not a lot of Slayers historically have made it out of their teens.”

Bucky stared at her, frowning. “But… why would…”

With a sigh and a shrug, Buffy answered, “I don’t know how the system got so badly corrupted. I just know that I broke hundreds of years of tradition, pissed off the people supposedly in charge, told them to take a long walk off a short pier, and kept doing what I do.”

“What exactly do you do?” he asked curiously. So she gave him the spiel on Slayers. One girl in all the world, blah blah. Creatures of darkness, yadda yadda. Then she told him about her first few years, at least the cliff’s notes version.

“Wow. That’s… yeah,” he sounded impressed.

“The fun never stops at Slayer Central,” she quipped, smiling.

“I’m glad you made it this far. I’d never have met you if you died in your teens. I… think I was still on ice, then.”

“You’re gonna have to ‘splain that, one,” she replied, looking at him with a blank expression. So he told her. As much as he could remember about HYDRA, about the mind-wipes and the chill that never quite left him from his time in cryogenic sleep. Her expression turned sympathetic, but she didn’t interrupt while he spoke. He explained about seeing himself in the Smithsonian, the gaps in his memories, the knowledge that he was at one point Bucky Barnes… and that he didn’t know how to be that person anymore.

“I’m sorry that happened to you. Sounds like your life has been even worse than mine; I’ve only died and been brought back twice.” She shrugged, empathetic but at the same time pragmatic. She figured if he wanted to be smothered in sympathy, he’d have sought old friends. “But you wouldn’t be my soulmate if not for all that. Even if you were alive when I was born, you’d have been old enough to be my grandfather or something.”

“When’s your birthday?” he asked sheepishly. “I know I woke up one time with words, and they spent a long time trying to remove them from me. But it kept coming back.”

“1981. January 19th, California; I grew up in and around LA until my parents divorced; then mom, Dawn and I moved to Sunnydale where I stayed through high school and early college. Until it was destroyed in the same fight that caused me to awaken all the Slayers.”

“You sure you want a broken old warhorse for a soulmate?” he asked, gaze downturned.

“Hey. Look at me.” She waited until his eyes met hers. “We’ve both been through our own wars and our own versions of Hell. We’ve lost friends, family, and sometimes ourselves. And then the Powers That Be put us together; I have to believe there’s a reason for that. So yes. I want you here. I want you to stay with me, and we can work this out together.”

She held out her hand and slowly, uncertainly, he took it. She pulled him into her arms and felt his arms slip around her waist as he leaned into her. “I’ve got you. You’re here with me, now, and neither of us is alone anymore,” she murmured softly. “I won’t let anyone take you away from me, now that you’ve finally found me.”

“Don’t deserve a gal as great as you,” he murmured softly. “You spent so many years doing good, and I…”

“You didn’t have a choice, didn’t know who you were working for, and weren’t allowed to live in the world long enough to know which side was the right one and which wasn’t,” she interrupted. “As soon as you figured it out, you broke away from that.” She smiled a little and her voice warmed. “I’m proud of you. And proud to have a soulmate like you.” Then she grinned. “And even better, I don’t have to be worried about Slayer strength intimidating you. I’m not sure which of us is stronger; it might be fun to find out sometime, though.”

He chuckled softly. “Maybe we can, doll. Maybe we can.” He lifted his head to meet her eyes and she smiled brightly. When he smiled back, she leaned in to kiss him softly.

“Welcome home, James,” she whispered before he kissed her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Holy cats. 2000 words exactly. This is the second time I’ve had to go back and reword/trim things down to stay under the word limit. Still, I hope you enjoyed it!**


	11. Out Of Immediate View (Daisy Johnson/Maria Hill)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria Hill and Daisy Johnson as soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This pairing was requested by Divinefighter. I hope you like it!

Daisy sat in a corner, playing with her phone.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she’d let Coulson talk her into this. _I mean, a SHIELD/Avengers Reunion for New Year’s Eve? Really?_ And hosted at the Avengers’ facility, no less.

Honestly, Daisy believed that Coulson had been guilted into promising that his whole team would come. Something about keeping his return to life a secret from people who’d really cared about him. But there were very few people here that she knew, outside of her team. Daisy hadn’t been a SHIELD agent for long enough, and her team hadn’t interacted with many others from the Bus.

About the only good thing about the evening was the endless supply of booze making the rounds of the room. She didn’t even have to leave her corner, now that the servers knew she was there; they brought their trays of glasses and hors d'oeuvres to her automatically, and she smiled at them in thanks each time.

“I thought I saw someone laying low over here,” an unfamiliar voice broke into her concentration and Daisy looked up, startled, as she set the phone down. The voice came from a woman who, while not an acquaintance of Daisy’s was certainly known to her. Bright blue eyes framed by short, dark hair softened Agent Hill’s face prettily and Daisy could only blink at her for a long moment as her mind absorbed the concept that Agent Hill had _just said her soul words_.

“Out of immediate view is always the safest place to be,” Daisy managed to answer finally. She watched Hill’s eyes go wide; the older woman sat down heavily, snagging the empty chair across from Daisy’s.

“In company like this?” Hill finally asked, glancing back towards the group of super heroes and agents, present and former.

“Even in company like this,” Daisy agreed quietly. “I’m glad my team is getting a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues, but I really have no reason to be here. But since DC promised that our whole team would come, I came anyway.”

“I’m Maria Hill,” she introduced herself. Then Hill studied Daisy for a long moment. “You must be Skye. Coulson’s consultant who became an agent just before everything went to pieces.”

“That’s me, but I go by Daisy now.”

“Name change?”

Daisy shrugged lightly. She wouldn’t normally answer questions like this from someone she’d just met, but she figured she might get some points for being honest with her new soulmate. Particularly since said soulmate likely still had more than enough connections to find out as much as anyone still in SHIELD knew. “I was an orphan with no background for a long time. Skye was the name I chose for myself. Earlier this year, though, we discovered that my parents weren’t dead. I lost them last spring, but I took back the name they’d given me. It’s about all I have left of them, at this point.”

“I’m sorry,” Maria said gently. “A lot of agents have tough backgrounds; not that it makes it easier to hear their stories.”

Daisy smiled. “It’s alright. I don’t mind.”

They sat quietly for a few minutes, neither quite sure what to say to each other. “Would… would you like to dance?” Maria asked, if only to break the awkward silence.

“Um, sure,” Daisy answered. “But… well, don’t expect too much from me. DC has taught me a little, but…”

“That’s okay. I took enough classes for both of us,” Maria answered with a smile. “If you can follow my lead, I can make you look amazing.”

Daisy laughed and tucked her phone away as she got up. “I’ll take you up on that.” They walked towards the dance floor together and took a small space at the edge, well away from the center where Coulson and May were competing for attention with Pepper and Tony. Maria intended for them to stay unnoticed until they got the hang of each other’s rhythm.

Daisy quickly learned that Maria was an even better lead than Coulson. And that apparently either Maria’s boast was correct or else something about them being soulmates just made them click. They flowed around the edge of the dance floor, Maria quietly guiding Daisy’s feet through unfamiliar steps and patterns.

Fortunately, Daisy was also a quick learner. And for whatever reason, she was completely comfortable in her soulmate’s arms. So she let Maria twirl her around the floor, and only after half a dozen songs did they realize that everyone else had stopped to watch them.

Impulsively deciding to make an impact quickly, Maria spun Daisy around and dipped the smaller woman over her knee, kissing her softly before raising her back to her feet. Daisy blushed and Maria smiled when a smattering of applause broke out of the startled quiet in the room.

“Something you’d like to share with us, you two?” Coulson asked with a raised eyebrow.

Daisy exchanged a glance and a smile with Maria, then shrugged. “We’re soulmates,” they said, nearly in unison.

“Congratulations!” Pepper replied before anyone else could. “I hope you’ll be very happy together.” She crossed the floor to give Maria a hug, then held her hand out to Daisy. “I’m Pepper. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Daisy Johnson,” Daisy introduced herself, taking Pepper’s hand briefly. “And I think most of the world knows who you are.”

Pepper smiled at that and shrugged. “Hard to stay anonymous when you run a big company.”

“And when your soulmate is a billionaire _and_ a superhero,” Daisy teased.

“That, too,” Pepper agreed with a laugh.

Speaking of whom, Tony pushed his way over next. “Lookin’ good, ladies,” he complemented with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Congratulations,” he added when Pepper elbowed him in the side.

“Thanks, Stark,” Maria answered, rolling her eyes at Tony’s exuberance.

“Not many believe the hard-as-nails Deputy Director of SHIELD even has a soul,” Clint quipped, stepping over to give Maria a kiss on the cheek, “let alone a soulmate.”

“As if half the high-level agents weren’t capable of being chameleons or robots,” Daisy fired back, immediately rallying to her soulmate’s defense.

Clint cracked a grin. “I like her,” he told Maria immediately, and they all heard Natasha chuckling from behind him.

“Look,” Pepper broke in before the Avengers could completely overwhelm Daisy, “there are a couple of lounges down the hall that we had done up for the party, in case the crowds got too much for some of our guests. You’re welcome to make use of one if you want a chance to get to know each other.”

“I think we’d like that,” Daisy agreed quietly, glancing at Maria who just nodded.

“Just be back in time for the countdown,” Tony quipped.

Daisy blushed at the pointed look from Coulson, reinforcing Stark’s admonition . “Of course,” she agreed.

They couldn’t escape quickly enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1150 words. Not too bad.


	12. I Knew Him (Bucky/Brock/Daisy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A three-way soulbond between some of our favorite characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This grouping was requested by LunaOrlha.
> 
> The beginning of this story takes place during CA: TWS. Then the second part takes place in the summer between S2 and S3 of AoS. I'm ignoring anything S3 and onwards.

Brock Rumlow knew he was dead the moment he realized that HYDRA’s _Asset_ was Bucky Barnes.

It got worse when Barnes made eye contact with him just before they put him back into the chair to wipe his memories again. “I knew him,” Barnes whispered. Those three words had been scrawled on the inside of his wrist since he’d been born.

_Shit._

No point in saying anything at that moment, though. If he was being wiped, he wouldn’t remember anyway. Brock had some thinking to do; time to decide if HYDRA was worth losing his _soulmate_ over. Possibly both of them; if one was Barnes, the other was likely someone else that HYDRA would want to control - or eliminate.

\---

They met again a few days later; Rumlow was assigned as the Asset’s handler for a short mission. Barnes nodded briefly to him as he reported for the mission. Brock gave him a small smile and simply said, “Time to go.” He’d thought long and hard about what he should say; likely he wouldn’t get any reaction from Barnes until his mind started to clear a bit, and he didn’t want to give anything away. Likely a dozen other people had said something similar to him over the years, so this shouldn’t necessarily trace back to him. And it wasn’t something so awful that his soulmates would want to hurt him for later.

It was a long drive, and with just the two of them it was entirely quiet for the three hours it took. They retrieved the package in short order and left again. “All right?” Brock asked as they settled back into the vehicle.

Barnes glanced at him, expression quizzical for half a moment. Then he just nodded. But that moment of confusion was what Brock needed; he knew something of the man’s mind was still there under the programming. He just had to reach it.

So he started to talk. Telling Barnes about himself, about his time in the military. His experiences with SHIELD. The difference between SHIELD and HYDRA. And finally, he got a response.

“Why are you..?” Barnes broke off, flinching back slightly as if expecting a blow in response to his questions.

But instead of answering immediately, Brock pulled off the highway and stopped under the overpass. He reached for his sleeve and tugged it up, revealing the soulmark there. “Is this your writing?” he asked quietly.

Barnes looked at it, then pulled out a notepad and jotted down those same three words. They matched exactly. “Guess it is,” he answered in a low voice.

Brock nodded. “That’s why. I had to know… if there was enough of you left to reach past the programming.”

“So now what?”

“I’m working on that. I need you to behave as normally as possible, for now. First opportunity we have to make a clean break for it, we do. But we go together.”

“I… understand.”

“I hope so. I do,” Brock said gently. “And for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Not knowing you were there. For what we might still have to do to be free.”

For just a moment, Barnes’ lips quirked in an expression that made Brock’s heart skip a beat. Without stopping to think about it, Brock leaned in and kissed those lips, finding them strangely soft. “Worth it,” Barnes said quietly when Brock pulled back.

\---

They weren’t able to stop the launch of the Insight helicarriers. The moment Rumlow knew that Cap and Barnes were fighting, he knew this would be their chance. If Rogers and Romanoff succeeded in sabotaging Insight, he and Bucky could escape in the chaos.

He heard over comms that Falcon was in the building and sent Rollins to investigate. He split up the rest of the team to different tasks, and then made a mad dash for the river. Moments later, the carriers shot each other down. People fell like so much debris from the crashing vehicles, and Brock saw two that he recognized.

He met Bucky at the bank, noting immediately that he was hauling Rogers out of the water as well. After checking to make sure Rogers would survive until EMTs arrived, he grabbed Bucky’s arm. And together, they disappeared before anyone else arrived.

* * *

“Coulson, we need backup!” Daisy called in desperation, even though she knew that any help was at least twenty minutes away. “I can’t hold them off for long!”

She was in the middle of nowhere, China; she had been sent to investigate another ruin that appeared to have Kree characteristics, and she’d gone in with a very small team - herself, Mack and Fitz - to check the place out. Small because they’d hoped to avoid hostilities if they found other Inhumans.

What they found might have once been people, but any humanity they’d had was long lost. They looked more than half-animal, and they behaved more like wolves or maybe lions. They were smart, fast and deadly.

And now she was cut off from Fitz and Mack, with only her powers between her and whatever these things were. At least her teammates were safe, albeit they’d have to dig their way out of the ruins.

She was startled by a sudden burst of automatic weapons fire from behind her; several of the creatures fighting against her torrent of wind fell to the ground and were swept away. She spared quick glance over her shoulder and saw two figures, both dark and scruffy, emerging from between the trees to assist her.

Well, hopefully they’d be friendlier than the wolf-things.

When the creatures had all been killed or driven away, she let the winds fade away. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face her rescuers.

The first one, the taller of the two with dusky skin and piercing eyes, said something to her that sounded like a question; if she had to guess, she would’ve said it sounded like Mandarin. But despite her heritage, she’d never tried to learn the language so she just shrugged. “Sorry, I don’t actually speak Chinese.”

The two men traded a glance, but made no move to come nearer. So she studied them; they were a set of contrasts, really. One had deep, dark eyes where the other’s were brilliantly blue. They were both dark haired, but though neither appeared to have shaved in several days only one of them had long hair; the other had what looked like the remnants of a military cut.

“He just asked if you were alright,” blue eyes said after a moment. She paused, suddenly remembering her soul marks. That was one of them; the other was something in Chinese characters. Did that mean…?

“I’m fine. Not a scratch,” she asserted, drawing on all her bravado. Between the weapons and the likelihood that the two were living rough in the Chinese mountains, she knew she had to be cautious. They were very likely quite dangerous.

But blue eyes broke out into a grin at her words. “We ain’t gonna hurt ya, doll,” he assured her in a gentle tone; his speech suddenly had a hard Brooklyn accent as he apparently relaxed.

“Good to know,” she said, still cautious. May would kill her if she let her guard down and got herself hurt.

“Daisy, report,” Coulsn’s voice came through her comm at that moment.

She touched her earpiece to respond. “Wildlife has been neutralized. I’m not entirely sure about the situation, though. Stand by.”

Dark eyes frowned at her as she reached up to mute her comm again. “Who’re you on the line with?” he asked in a deep voice, his expression hardening as suspicion lit his eyes.

“My CO. Look, I have no idea who you guys are and I’m not sure I care,” she offered them an out. “If you want to stay hidden, turn back around and go. I won’t say anything other than that I was rescued by a couple of locals with guns. We didn’t bring high caliber rounds, so it’s believable.”

“Who’re you with?” Blue eyes asked; he seemed far less suspicious than his… what? Partner? Friend? But she caught a glimpse of metal under the collar of his shirt and began to wonder.

“SHIELD. Actual SHIELD, not HYDRA. But as I said, we’re not looking for you.”

“You might change your mind if we were to give you names,” dark eyes commented brusquely.

Daisy shrugged. “So don’t,” she answered quietly. “Just go.”

“But…” blue eyes began, clearly torn. “If she’s our soulmate…”

Dark eyes shrugged. “It’s something, yeah,” he answered in a softer voice. “But she ain’t bonded to us, so she could turn us in without harming herself.”

“I wouldn’t, though,” she said in a low tone. “Listen; Fury left SHIELD to Agent Phil Coulson. That’s who I work for. He’s a good man.”

“He is,” dark eyes agreed slowly, “or, at least he was when I knew him.”

“He hasn’t changed that much,” Daisy answered with a fond smile. “I can put him back on the comms if you’d want to talk to him yourself.”

They hesitated, trading glances with each other and Daisy sighed before triggering her comms. “Coulson? I have someone here who might want to talk to you, just to confirm my bona fides. I’m going to set the earpiece down for a minute and let him decide.” She waited for his agreement, then did as she said.

She took several steps backwards, keeping her eyes on the two men. Dark eyes slowly moved forward, clearly suspecting a trap of some sort, then picked up the earpiece and held it to his ear. He grunted a brief sound, then waited, listening.

“Guess she was tellin’ the truth, then,” he said after a moment and he slowly smiled. “Yes, sir. Had to get as far away from HYDRA as possible after DC. No, sir. No.” He sighed. “Alright. Tomorrow.”

He unhooked the earpiece and tossed it back to Daisy. She caught it, but looked at dark eyes rather than put it back on right away. “So?”

“So, we’ll see you tomorrow,” he said softly. With a glance and a hand on blue eyes’ arm, he walked back towards the trees and they disappeared into the growth.

“Huh.” She slipped the earpiece back on. “DC?”

“Daisy,” Coulson greeted her. “Is he gone?”

“Yeah, they both are.”

“Both?”

“There were two men; the one you spoke to, and another with bright blue eyes and a very obvious Brooklyn accent.”

“Interesting,” Coulson said. “Seems you’ve run into Brock Rumlow, former commander of STRIKE Team Alpha. He went MIA during the events of Insight. No one was ever sure why.”

“Knowing that, if I had to guess, I’d say that he’s protecting blue eyes,” she commented, making her way back towards the area where Mack and Fitz had shut themselves in when the attack came.

“Can you make yourselves secure until tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I think we can. Maybe not _in_ the ruins, this time.”

“Good. May and I will be there tomorrow to meet with Rumlow.”

“One thing, DC,” Daisy ventured quietly before he signed off.

“Yes?”

“I… I think they’re my soulmates.” Silence.

“Tomorrow, Daisy,” Coulson said in a tired voice.

“Yes, sir.”

\----

Late morning the next day, a quinjet landed beside the camp Daisy’s team had made. They had tucked themselves into the corner of a canyon near the ruins where they could put their backs to a wall and there was only one good approach. The treeline was a good hundred yards away and they had perimeter sensors up so one person could handle overnight watch. Mack had insisted on taking the dawn shift so Daisy could get some rest before the meeting. She’d told the whole story overnight.

May emerged first, looking around warily. Coulson followed, seeming slightly more relaxed. So, situation normal. Perhaps ten minutes later Rumlow and his partner emerged from the trees slowly.

“Agent Rumlow,” Coulson greeted him cordially as they approached. “Good to see you alive and well.” Then his gaze fell on the other man and his expression froze as his eyes went wide. “Barnes?” he said wonderingly. “James Barnes?”

“Now you know why I disappeared, Coulson,” Rumlow said, pausing at a distance much like yesterday. “And why I can’t come back.”

“He could be safe with us, if you wanted to be,” Coulson offered. “Most of HYDRA is dead, between us and the Avengers.”

Daisy stepped up beside Coulson as he spoke, and she offered a smile to the two men who might be hers. “There’s still too much I have to do; my team needs me. But… I wouldn’t turn you two away, either. I mean, if you want…”

Blue eyes - no, James - started towards her, only to be held back by Brock. “No, wait,” Brock said gently.

James shook his head. “She thinks we don’ want ‘er, Brock,”  he said in a low voice, his eyes troubled. “Can’t let that stand.”

“How about this?” Coulson began. “Daisy can come out to you and talk with Barnes. Rumlow, you come into camp and we’ll work something out.”

Bucky’s pleading eyes made Brock nod his agreement. He waited until Daisy joined them and gave her a small smile. “Sorry about this, sweetheart,” he said to her in a low voice. “I just… can’t risk his safety. Not again.”

“I understand,” she murmured back, then turned her attention to James. “Hi. I’m Daisy.”

“Call me Bucky,” he said enthusiastically. Though his eyes tracked Brock’s movement towards Coulson, clearly watching his partner’s back.

“Sure,” she agreed as she quickly made the same connection Coulson had. Beneath the scruff, he did look like James Buchanan Barnes. “It’s nice to meet you at last.”

“You’ve no idea, doll.” He grinned and she smiled back. “Tell me about yourself, please?”

So she did.

It certainly passed the time while Coulson spoke with Rumlow. Bucky watched her as she spoke, though he always kept Rumlow in his periphery. He added in pieces of his own story, and she quickly realized that he really was Bucky Barnes. The only Howling Commando to die in the war. His memories of after the war seemed sketchy, though, and his voice hardened from sometimes as he answered her gentle questions. Almost as if he were two different people.

Maybe he was.

Turned out that he’d been a HYDRA experiment. Their attempt to counter Captain America, even after Cap went down in the arctic. He didn’t remember much because his memory had been wiped, repeatedly, and they’d programmed him like a weapon.

Her heart went out to him, and she began to understand why Rumlow was so protective. Bucky was still so broken, more than a year after escaping HYDRA.

Bucky had just began a story about the last Stark Expo he and Steve had gone to before he shipped out when Rumlow approached again. “Brock!” Bucky said brightly, smiling.

“Hey,” Brock answered, ruffling Bucky’s hair gently. His eyes found Daisy’s. “You mind leaving us to talk a bit?”

She shrugged. “Sure. Listen,” she began as she got to her feet. “I think I understand. He’s your priority, and he needs you. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine either way.” Brock nodded his understanding, but as Daisy started to walk away Bucky jumped up and swept her into his arms.

“No, no. You can’t go if you still think we don’t want you,” he murmured into her hair.

“Shhh,” she soothed. “I don’t think that. But you two make the decision that’s best for your safety, okay?” But she couldn’t get Bucky to let her go, so she just looked at Brock.

“Do you want to go with them, Buck?” Brock asked after a moment of indecision. “They live on a hidden base, teams of people in and out. It would be safe, but it might bring back bad memories.”

That made Bucky pause, but he looked down at Daisy. “I want to go. I want to help,” he said slowly, thoughtfully. “And… I want to get help.” He looked back at Brock, expression serious. “We’ve come a long way breaking down the programming. But we need help with the rest. You know we do. If Daisy trusts these people… I trust her. I trust the fact that fate made her our soulmate.”

“We do have a psychologist on retainer,” Daisy offered gently. “I saw him when I changed, gained my powers. He helped me a lot, and I think he could help Bucky too.”

Brock hesitated, then nodded. “Alright. Then we’ll give it a try.”

“Yahoo!” Bucky lifted Skye into the air and spun her around. Startled, she laughed until he put her down again.

“Thank you,” Daisy said to Brock as she finally managed to disentangle herself from Bucky. “For being willing to give this a chance, I mean.”

“He might be right. Fate paired us up for a reason; it’s brought us this far so let’s see where else it goes.” Hesitantly, he held out his arms to her; couldn’t let Bucky be the only one giving hugs.

She smiled and stepped into his embrace. “I hoped you might feel that way.”

“Daisy!” Mack called from the edge of camp. “You want me to pack for you so we can go?”

“Sure. Thanks!” She shook her head, smiling. “That’s Mack, and he’s a great guy. He’s my primary partner on missions, and we work really well together. He’s kinda protective, too, so you should get along well,” she teased gently.

“Glad you’ve had someone watching your back, sweetheart,” Rumlow said, voice an amused rumble.

“I’m glad you’ve had each other,” she answered. “Do you need to go pack?”

Brock shook his head. “Nah. Been living off the land, mostly.”

“Really?” She eyed the guns suspiciously.

“Well, and snatching things from any HYDRA forces we found of course.”

She smirked. “Gotcha. Well, then… coming?”

“Lead on,” Rumlow replied.

“I’d follow you anywhere, doll.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2998 words. I thought I might have to trim to keep this in my word limit. Also, suspicious Brock is a stubborn ass! 
> 
> I know some of you may not agree with my take on Bucky in this, but here's my view: this Bucky was snagged directly from HYDRA and they took off into the wilderness to keep both of them under HYDRA's radar. No stops at the Smithsonian or anything, because Brock KNOWS who Bucky is. Brock might be a badass, but he's not really accustomed to dealing with mental problems like Bucky has. So in this version, Bucky has almost wound up compartmentalized; there's the Winter Soldier half, that responds in emergencies and can fight like nobody's business. And then there's Bucky, who has most of his memories back from before the War, but only sketchy bits and pieces of anything after that. But Bucky still has all the trauma reactions, so in some ways he's more childlike than he would've been otherwise. It's a sort of disconnect, and I've seen it in other PTSD sufferers among other things. A sort of willful ignorance, because it's easier to ignore the pain than deal with it.
> 
> Yes, Daisy gets him help. Andrew has his hands full for a while, but eventually they work through it.


	13. For What It's Worth (Steve/Tony/Daisy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trio 'ship as requested by LunaOrlha.
> 
> This is set after the mid S3 break of AoS.

Daisy was bored.

She felt fine, other than a headache that wouldn’t quit. But beyond that she didn’t seem to be feeling any side-effects of her second exposure to the open monolith. Nothing would help the headache but time, though. So she was holed up in her room, dark and quiet, and wishing she had something to do.

Finally, she grabbed her laptop. Fitz had installed a blue-light filter that kept the screen from irritating her so much in the dark. He’d babbled something about brainwave stimulation and her rampant insomnia and hijacked her computer and tablet for a few hours.

Whatever he’d done, it meant at least she could do something despite her headache.

But what to do? She didn’t think they were going to get much more out of the ATCU. They hadn’t found a node pathway into HYDRA yet. What did that leave?

With a grin, she pulled up a bunch of her old hacking programs and isolated her laptop from anything SHIELD based except the encrypted outgoing internet line. It had been ages since she played with Stark Industries’ security system.

She wondered if Stark’s AI missed her.

Nah.

The first thing she discovered was that Stark’s AI had changed. It popped up a window on her screen with a different appearance.

_Please cease your attempts to break in._

_You’re not JARVIS,_ she quickly typed back. She kept her hack running anyway, knowing she couldn’t actually distract an AI.

_I am not. JARVIS is no longer available on this connection. But you must be SkyeNet; there are records from JARVIS of your previous interactions._

Daisy grinned. It had been ages since she had coined that hacking handle as a cute nod to Terminator; and why not? It wasn’t like “Skye” had any legal existence anyway.

_I haven’t used that identity in quite a while, but yes._

_JARVIS indicated that you don’t actually mean any harm. But Sir would prefer you desist._

_You can tell Stark that I won’t hurt his precious systems, but you’ll have to work hard to keep me out!_ At last. A real challenge.

She spent the next hour playing cat-and-mouse with the new AI. It was great fun. Then all of a sudden, something changed. She detected signs of more opposition incoming.

Simultaneously, she got two new pop-up chat windows.

_SkyeNet. It has been 18,237.6 hours since your last attempt on SI’s systems. I cannot permit you to infiltrate further, but it is… good to know you are still safe._

Awww. JARVIS _had_ missed her!

 _JARVIS! You know, two AIs against one human must be cheating somehow._ She snickered to herself as she started up a couple of new misdirection programs she’d created in the past year.

The second new window blinked insistently at her as it scrolled through several incoming messages.

 _SkyeNet, huh?_  
_Cute name._  
 _VISION says you used to do this a lot._  
 _But I’m better._

She scowled at the screen. Typical Stark arrogance. _Well, then, why is it taking you and TWO AIs to find me?_

_FRIDAY is still a new system. Give her some time. She hasn’t spread out as far as JARVIS yet._

Interesting. She knew JARVIS was an adaptive AI; he had shared pieces of his code with her here and there and out of respect she had never tried to access or alter it.

 _JARVIS is quite a piece of work_. _FRIDAY is okay, but I liked interacting with JARVIS._

Deciding that she’d caused enough havoc for one day, Daisy began to pull out of Stark’s systems. She closed down her programs one by one until she only had a tenuous connection that allowed her chat to keep working.

Two windows flashed at once. She checked JARVIS first.

 _Thank you for ending the game today._ it said. _I will prevent FRIDAY from backtracking your signal._

 _I’m pretty well hidden, but thank you,_ she sent back. _What happened to you anyway?_

Stark’s window read, _Awww. Done so soon? We were going to follow your trail back home._

_Don’t count on it, Mr. Stark. Nice try, though._

_This was fun. Same time next week?_ Daisy gave the idea some serious thought. It was SO tempting…

_Sure, if I’m not busy. I’ll find a way to leave you a message if I won’t be around._

_Cool. Take care, SkyeNet. BTW, I’m calling you that forever, even if we meet in person._ She laughed at that and closed all the windows except the one to JARVIS.

Who, she learned, was now VISION. He told her the whole story, and she smiled a little sadly. Invited him to look her up in person sometime; she’d let him know if she was going to be in New York.

The next week was just as fun.

And the one after.

She missed the fourth week, due to a mission. They rescheduled for the evening after she got home.

And then she realized she was beginning to like Stark almost as much as his AIs.

~~~~~~~~~

A few weeks later, the Avengers discovered that Coulson was still alive. Daisy actually wondered how it had taken them so long; Coulson hadn’t exactly been hiding when he was out meeting and talking with Rosalind. So the main team ended up going to Stark Tower for a meeting.

Daisy sat in the back of the room and listened until she could see that Coulson was being worn down. Then she made her move; during a pause in the yelling, mostly from Stark, she stepped in front of Coulson and glared at the Avengers. “Alright, we get it. You’re pissed off. And yes, you have a right to be upset. But you can take your temper tantrum and shove it. We’ve had enough of this!”

No one spoke for a long time. Stark and Rogers just blinked at her, Stark’s mouth open but no words emerging. Then Pepper spoke up. “She’s right. Yelling isn’t going to make a difference. Done is done.” Then she turned her attention to Coulson, her eyes bright with tears but her expression calm. “I’m glad you’re alive, Phil. I wish you’d told us sooner… but I’m happy to see you.”

“Thank you, Pepper. I’m happy to see you too.”

Since the Avengers seemed to be taking her words to heart, Daisy returned to her out of the way seat. She watched with a small smile as first Barton and then Romanov got up to give Coulson hugs. She was pretty sure Romanov was swearing in Russian, but her eyes shone with tears and the assassin was smiling.

“You’re right, you know. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” a quiet voice spoke as the tall figure of Steve Rogers took the seat beside her. Daisy froze; she realized two things in that moment. 1. Steve Rogers was her soulmate; which meant that likely her second soulmate was in the room somewhere, and 2. She’d probably given her soulmates an unbelievably long and very scolding soulmark.

Well, crap.

She gave him a sheepish smile. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you’ve got an ungodly long soulmark that’s basically me chewing you out.”

He chuckled. “It’s alright. You had no way to know.”

“Do you have a second mark?” she asked curiously.

“Yes,” he answered in a low voice. “We’ve kept it quiet, though. We like to keep our private lives as private as possible.”

She nods. “I understand.” She opened her mouth to say something further, but was interrupted by Coulson.

“Skye!”

“Daisy, sir,” Jemma and Fitz corrected in the same breath.

“Wait, Skye?” Tony perked up, his eyes skimming over the team, trying to figure out who Coulson was talking to. “As in SkyeNet? As in the hacker who my AIs like to play hide and seek with? _That_ Skye?”

Daisy blushed. “The name really was from a long time ago. But yes.”

Tony’s eyes fell on her and he broke out in a grin. “You’re beautiful! I… wow. I can’t believe how lucky I am.” She blushed again as he spoke the words scrawled on her lower back.

“Daisy?” Coulson asked, looking between them as if he wasn’t sure he was going to like what she would say.

“He’s my soulmate, DC. Well, one of them.”

“You have two?” he asked. She simply slanted a glance at Steve beside her and Coulson facepalmed. “You don’t get to steal Daisy,” he said sternly to Rogers and Stark. “She’s my best hacker, as well as the leader of a team.”

Stark pouted but Steve spoke up from beside her. “That’s really her choice, isn’t it?”

“I can’t abandon my team, though,” Daisy said quietly. “They’re the only family I have left.”

“Why don’t we give them a chance to discuss it?” Pepper suggested, with a pointed glance towards the door. No one protested when Steve led Daisy out of the room, quickly followed by Stark. They led her down the hall to a cozy little lounge area that none the less was still set up with high tech conferencing equipment.

“It’s not that I don’t want this,” Daisy began in a quiet voice as soon as they were alone. “Please don’t think that. It’s just…”

“They’re important to you,” Steve answered with a small smile. “That’s okay.”

“If you’re really SkyeNet, you probably want to meet VISION, though,” Stark put in.

Daisy smiled. “I would, very much. But not right now. Pepper’s right; we should probably talk about this.” She sighed. “I get that you might want me to stay here, but I’m not really Avenger material. I’m not that kind of special. And I don’t think I could settle for less than being fully part of a team, if I had to leave mine behind.”

“Not special?” Tony stared at her incredulously. He looked down at his hands for a moment, then stepped close and caught her hand in his. “SkyeNet, you’re the woman who hacked into my systems, ran circles around my AIs, and got out again before I could track you down! You’re amazing!”

She smiled a little at how quickly his appreciation of her skill transferred to appreciation of her personally and wondered if maybe he’d started to like the person on the other end of the message window too. Just a little, perhaps.

“I’m also Inhuman,” she said quietly. “You know, all those outbreaks of people suddenly gaining powers? It didn’t happen to me like that, but it did happen.”

They both paused for a moment, then shrugged almost as one. “So you have powers. No biggie,” Stark replied. “You’d fit in here quite nicely.”

“I suppose I might. But because I’ve been through it, don’t I have some responsibility to help others going through it?”

Steve nodded. “She’s right, Tony. It’s the right thing to do.”

“But…”

She smiled. “That doesn’t mean I won’t visit. It doesn’t mean that you can’t come see me, when you have time. Maybe once things settle down…”

“We can talk about it then,” Steve agreed.

“I’ll give you one of my jets. Teach you to fly it, even,” Tony offered immediately. “So anytime you have a day off, you can come here. No being dependent on having someone available to bring you or a vehicle free.”

Daisy laughed. “I’m pretty sure Agent May won’t let me anywhere near the pilot’s seat until I get a license for it.”

“So your team is protective of you too?” Steve asked with a smile.

“Yeah. Some more so than others.”

“Sounds like a good team. But we’ll always be here for you need us to be, as well,” Steve promised.

“I appreciate that. I can’t promise that we won’t need it. But I will call, if I can.”

“I could set you up with a remote link to FRIDAY,” Tony offered. “She can keep tabs on your status…” He trailed off when he caught Daisy’s glare.

“No. I’m an adult and an agent. I refuse to let you - or your AIs - babysit me because of the work I do. If I need help, I’ll call.”

“Would you be willing to take an emergency call button, maybe?” Steve interjected before Tony could complain. “Not something that’s on all the time, but would put through a priority signal in case of emergency?”

Daisy tilted her head, considering the request. It wasn’t _unreasonable_ … realistically, she’d prefer for her soulmates to be able to reach her in an emergency too. “Provided that it’s not programmed for passive location or whatever… I suppose I’d be willing to compromise on an emergency alert.”

Steve shot a look at Tony, who shrugged and smiled. “Fine, fine. I think I can work with that.” Steve relaxed marginally, glad to have averted a serious argument in the first half-hour of having them all together.

“Do you think Coulson might be willing to let you stay for just a couple of days?” Steve asked in a low voice, moving to stand behind Tony. They didn’t do a lot of touchy-feely stuff where people could see, but they were frequently in each other’s personal space. Just close, if not touching. He didn’t want to crowd Daisy so soon.

“I… yeah, probably. There’s some flexibility built into SHIELD protocols for soulmates; and even more now that the organization isn’t what it used to be.” Daisy looked up at them and licked her lips nervously. They weren’t too close, though Tony still held onto one of her hands. “I will admit, I’d like a chance to get to know you. Personally, I mean, and not just what I can find out in the news or by hacking a server.”

Both men’s eyes followed the path of her tongue over her lips, but when he spoke Steve’s voice was almost normal. “I think we’d like that, too. We won’t keep you from your team, Daisy, or your job. We’d just like a little time just us before the world interferes again.”

“I think that can be arranged,” she agreed quietly.

Tony used his grip on her hand to gently tug her closer, and she complied readily. He looped his other arm around her waist and pulled her in close. “Well, then, welcome to Avengers Tower, SkyeNet,” he said in a low voice. Then his lips captured hers.

It was one of the most intense kisses she’d ever experienced. Tony clearly didn’t do things halfway. He delved into her mouth, provoking her until she responded with a quiet moan. She felt a second arm wrap around her as Tony released her lips, only to find herself being kissed again a moment later.

Steve’s kiss was tentative, softer than Tony’s. It asked, rather than demanded, and she eagerly returned his kiss as well. Gently exploring. It occurred to her as they separated that their kisses were much like their personalities seemed to be. Tony’s brash and forceful, Steve’s more reserved.

But, if all went well, she’d have plenty of time to pick up on the nuances with these two. So she just smiled up at them both and answered Tony’s comment. “Thanks. I’m happy to be here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2519 words. But damn, was Tony frustrating me for a while!


	14. People Like Us (Natasha/Daisy)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An Avenger & an Inhuman. Fun times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This pairing was requested by TabbyPanther, and I think a few others. I hope you enjoy it!

Scott+M made me a manip for this pairing, and it looks awesome! Thank you, Scott!

* * *

 

“Nothing here, either,” Mack said in a low voice over comms and Daisy sighed. They’d found what was supposed to be another ATCU “containment facility.” Except that there was nothing here. Either someone else had hit it first or they’d scrubbed the place after SHIELD blew their cover.

“Alright,” Daisy ordered her team. “Converge in the main hall. Let’s get outta here.” She and Joey then retraced their steps.

They’d just reconvened inside the main entry when two unfamiliar figures dropped in on them. Literally. From the rafters.

Daisy heard the crackle of electricity around Lincoln’s hands and the sound of Mack drawing his guns as the four of them clustered, backs together. Then Daisy paused, noting something familiar about the way the intruders moved. “Wait a moment,” she told her team. Then she took a half-step forward; just enough to draw attention. “Agent Barton?” she asked, looking at the taller of the two figures.

The man in question froze, then stepped into the dim light and Daisy relaxed marginally. It was, indeed, Clint Barton - or else a very good doppleganger. Which likely meant…

“Agent Romanoff,” Mack greeted the other figure in a friendly tone.

“Agent Mackenzie,” Romanoff replied, sounding just a little surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“Ever since we discovered that the ATCU was trying to create more Inhumans, rather than their stated goal of containing them, we’ve been hitting their facilities as quickly as we can find them,” Mack answered.

“Inhumans?” Barton asked.

“People like us,” Daisy answered quietly, speaking to both former agents. “We have a genetic marker that causes us to transform when exposed to an alien compound called Terrigen. And given that we’ve mastered our new abilities as much as anyone can, our goal is to find other people caught unaware by their change and help teach them safely.”

The Avengers traded a glance, then Barton looked back at Daisy. “So you’re the remnants of SHIELD that survived, huh?”

“Something like that, yeah,” she answered with a small smile. “Agent Daisy Johnson.”

“Why should we believe you?” Romanoff asked, a hint of suspicion in her tone. “Only one of the four of you was known to us… before.”

Daisy hesitated for a moment, then stepped closer to Romanoff, putting herself directly into the older woman’s line of fire. “Because soulmates can’t lie to each other,” she asserted quietly. “And I wouldn’t try anyway, because it’s not a good way to start a relationship that needs trust.”

Romanoff glared at Daisy as Daisy’s teammates gasped; of them all, only Lincoln had ever seen her soulmark though Mack knew she had one. “I don’t need a soulmate,” Romanoff replied, her tone flat. “You’re better off without me.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one to decide that?” she asked in a low tone. Then she raised her voice, “Mack, take the team outside. Check in. I’ll be out in a bit.”

“You sure, Tremors?” he asked, already gesturing the newbies towards the door.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she answered, shooting her partner a brief smile. “But I don’t think we need an audience.” Mack nodded and gave her a reassuring smile before following Lincoln out the door.

Barton moved into the doorway to watch the three agents, while Romanoff remained in her spot with Daisy just a few feet away. Daisy held out her empty hands and tried a smile. “Do you really want to shoot me?” she asked quietly. “I know you weren’t expecting this, but neither was I. And I really don’t want to hurt you.”

Romanoff raised one delicately arched red eyebrow. “You think you could?”

“If I had to. But I’d rather not.” Daisy’s tone was calm, confident and Romanoff smiled. She put her guns away and fell into a sparring position.

That was the only warning Daisy had but she was ready. The two danced around the large entryway, arms and legs flying as they sparred. Romanoff was good, Daisy knew. Better than May, most likely, but Daisy had spent nearly all of her training up against people whose abilities far outstripped her own. She could cope.

They fought for nearly half an hour before Romanoff surprised Daisy with a move she hadn’t seen before. Daisy went down, Romanoff on top of her. “Give up, малютка?” Romanoff asked;  Daisy just grinned and twisted her body around even as she let off a burst of her powers, throwing Romanoff to the side.

“Nope,” she replied with a grin. “But I’ll accept a draw if you will.” To her surprise, Romanoff began to laugh. Then she heard clapping from the doorway; Barton was laughing quietly too.

“Not bad,” Romanoff conceded. “Who trained you?”

“Agent May,” Daisy answered, dusting herself off. “For the most part, anyway.”

“May came out of retirement?” Barton sounded surprised.

“Yes, a couple of years ago.”

“Must’ve been someone important doing the asking,” he replied and Daisy just shrugged.

“It was Coulson, wasn’t it?” Romanoff asked in a low voice. Daisy’s eyes widened, then narrowed again, but before she could speak Natasha went on, “He didn’t really think we wouldn’t know, did he? Fury likes his secrets, but Coulson hasn’t exactly laid low the past few years.”

With a sigh, Daisy shook her head. “I honestly don’t know what he thinks. But if you’d like to see him, you’re welcome to come back to base with us. Maybe hearing that you’re my soulmate will offset how pissed he’ll be at me for bringing you back.”

“We can deal with that,” Barton assured her. “He’ll be more pissed at us than you anyway.”

“Not that we don’t have words for him, too,” Romanoff added with a frown. The three of them exited the building and walked the short distance to the black SHIELD SUV. Mack smiled at them as they approached; Lincoln seemed torn between amused and resigned.

* * *

When they returned to the Playground, May took one look at who was with Daisy and shot her a glare. Daisy shrugged. “Agent Romanoff is my soulmate. They already know about DC, so I thought it couldn’t hurt.”

May sighed, then nodded. “Go clean up and we’ll debrief.” Daisy started to object, then shrugged and took her team off. She could always hack the security footage later to see how DC’s meeting with his former team went.

She was just finishing her debrief when she got the call to the Director’s office. She got up with a smile and a shrug for her teammates and headed off. It didn’t take her long to reach Coulson’s office and knock on the door.

“Come in.” She let herself in and paused in the doorway, assessing the room and its occupants. Coulson had emerged from behind his desk and sat on one of the couches. Across from him sat Romanoff and Barton. “Skye. Sorry, Daisy. Please, join us.” Coulson smiled at her.

Daisy closed the door behind herself and moved closer. She moved towards one of the chairs but paused when Barton got up. He grinned at her and gestured her into his place as he hooked one of the chairs closer with his foot. Romanoff glared at her partner’s behavior but stayed silent as Daisy settled into the now-vacant seat beside her soulmate.

“So, how much trouble am I in for bringing them home?” Daisy asked.

Coulson chuckled. “You’re not. It’s for the best, really.” He paused, looking between Daisy and Natasha. “So, soulmates. I suppose I should have put two and two together a while ago.”

Daisy rolled her eyes. “You can’t memorize everyone’s handwriting, DC. You hardly ever even see mine. And it’s not like my mark is readily visible.”

With a shrug, Coulson sighed. “I gave them,” he nodded towards his guests, “a bit of your background in the course of discussing Inhumans and what we’ve been up to the past few years. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“No, it’s alright,” Daisy agreed. “Whatever helps; I trust you. Not a ton of people I can say that about, but you know I do.” Coulson nodded his agreement and gave her a small smile.

When Romanoff still didn’t say anything, Daisy sighed and looked her right in the eyes. “I know you’re not thrilled with this, but do you think we can go somewhere and talk? Please?”

Natasha studied her for a moment, then nodded. As the two women got up, Coulson spoke up again, “I know I don’t have to tell you this, Tash… but I care about Skye a lot. I think she’ll be good for you, if you give it a chance.” A small smile touched the assassin’s lips at his words and the affection in his eyes when he looked at Daisy; she nodded slightly.

Daisy took Natasha down to her office; short of one of the lounges, all of which were likely to be occupied at the moment, it was the best she could do for neutral territory. She almost never spent any time there, but it had a door that could be locked if need be. She let them in and flopped onto the couch, ignoring the desk and chairs.

With a quirk of her lips, Natasha sat beside Daisy. “Unused office?” she asked, trying to assess their location.

“Eh, kinda,” Daisy replied. “It’s my office, but I’m almost never in it. Figured that it’s as close to neutral territory as we can get while still being otherwise unoccupied.” Natasha nodded and sat quietly, observing. Daisy tolerated the loaded silence for almost ten minutes. Finally, she sighed. “I get that you don’t want me. It’s alright. I’m used to that.”

Eyes softening slightly, Natasha shook her head. “It’s not you personally, малютка. I’m not made for love. I don’t deserve the happy ending.”

“Of course you do,” Daisy answered easily. “You’re a freaking Avenger! You save the world; at least twice so far, and that’s just the huge stuff. I’m sure you’ve saved hundreds of lives in your years as an Agent.”

“I have,” Natasha agreed, nodding her acceptance. “But I did a lot of terrible things before that. There’s a lot of red in my ledger.”

Daisy shrugged. “I’m not afraid of that, or of you. I’ve done a lot of questionable things, both as an Agent and before. I was working for the Rising Tide when Coulson picked me up.”

“He mentioned that. But he also told me that you don’t kill.”

“I try not to. If it can’t be avoided, it can’t. I’m aware that I probably could kill someone with my powers, but I haven’t tried and don’t really want to.”

Natasha nodded sympathetically. “You’re a good person, Daisy. I can see that, both from watching you and from what Coulson said. You deserve someone better than me.”

“If you believe in such things, our soul marks would suggest that there _is_ no one better than you. Not for me.”

“I wish I could believe that,” Natasha’s voice was near-inaudible.

Daisy scooted closer to Natasha on the couch, rested a hand very lightly on her arm. “I think I can believe enough for both of us, at least until you’re convinced. Sure, it might be a risk. But I’m willing to try if you are?”

Natasha looked up, bright blue-green eyes meeting deep brown. There was fear there, but also trust and hope. Finally, she lowered her eyes and nodded. “Alright. I’ll try.”

Daisy smiled and reached out to raise Natasha’s face again. Slowly, giving every chance to stop it, she leaned in for a gentle kiss. But Natasha didn’t want it to stop; it was like no other kiss she’d ever been given. It wasn’t flirtatious or full of blatant sexuality. It wasn’t driven by need or seduction or a challenge of skill.

It was just soft. Sweet. Asking, without taking. When Daisy would’ve pulled away, Natasha kept her close for a moment longer. Daisy relented immediately, smiling when Natasha’s arms came up to cradle her close.

They had a chance. It was enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> малютка - little one. Russian, of course.
> 
> 2000 words exactly, and I had to do some trimming.
> 
> Natasha didn't want to cooperate for a while. But when she got started, she kinda took off with it.


	15. You Met The Best One First (Bucky/Steve/Skye/Tony)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because our guys from the past need a lot of help in the modern world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bunny for this was dropped in my lap by LunaOrlha, aided and abetted later by NerdyKat. 
> 
> Many thanks to NerdyKat for beta assistance.
> 
> **Trigger Warnings: Mentions of past rape and abuse of a minor. Nothing explicit, because just no. Ew. But we all know that some of our heroes have unhappy pasts. If you choose not to read, I will not be offended.**

__

_Lovely image made for this short by LunaOrlha!_

* * *

 

When Steve woke up in SHIELD custody, the world was definitely a confusing place. 70 years… it was a lot to take in.

He wasn’t sure if it was more or less of a shock to discover that he had new soulmarks.

For some reason, Bucky’s mark was still as dark as ever. It hadn’t faded since his death, which was very peculiar. Steve didn’t know what it meant. But he had also acquired two new ones. The first was difficult to decipher, the writing appearing to be a hurried scribble. The second was very clear, the handwriting loopy and feminine-seeming.

He silently thanked God that fate had seen fit to give him new soulmates to help him adjust to this new time. Now hopefully it wouldn’t take long to find them.

\-----

“You look pretty good, for a Capsicle,” a voice spoke from behind Steve one afternoon. He turned to look at the man in the doorway with an expression of hope; those were the words he managed to puzzle out on his arm. The stranger’s grin slowly faded as they watched each other for a moment.

Finally, Steve found his voice. “I feel alright, except for being confused every few minutes.”

The man froze for a moment, eyes widening. Then he smiled. “Well, the world is an amazing and complex place. I’m Tony. Tony Stark.”

“Stark? Related to Howard?” Really, his new soulmate was someone related to his one-time friend?

Tony’s expression clouded but he nodded. “Yeah. He was my dad. We didn’t get along, though.”

Steve nodded. “I’m sorry. I just thought…”

Shaking himself, Tony shrugged. “He was obsessed with finding you. Even when he eventually back-burnered the project, he never forgot about you.”

“He was a good friend,” Steve answered quietly. “Hopefully you and I will be even better.”

“Damn straight. C’mon. Let’s bust you outta here for a while. Show you that modern isn’t so bad.” Tony’s expression lightened and Steve was glad he’d found the right words to ease their interaction. He didn’t want their bond to be laced with grief or resentment.

\-----

Steve was barely awake after his dip in the Potomac when Tony burst into the hospital room, swearing loudly. Sam jumped to his feet, but Tony just pushed him aside to get to Steve’s bedside.

“Damn you and your blasted hero complex!” Tony swore, though he picked up Steve’s hand so gently that Sam wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it. “I could’ve lost you. You _know_ I’m always here if you need help. Especially ‘saving the world’-type help!”

“I know,” Steve answered, his voice hoarse. “Sorry. Just… all happened so fast.” He glanced up and saw Sam’s concerned face. “Tony, meet Sam Wilson. Sam, this is Tony… one of my soulmates.”

Sam’s confusion cleared and he stepped around the bed to the other side. “Mr. Stark,” he greeted, holding out his hand. “Sam Wilson, codename Falcon. Former military, and glad to help Cap when he asked. Actually, I insisted.”

“Call me Tony. Any friend of Cap’s…” Tony shook hands briefly, then returned his attention to Steve. “As for you… why, why didn’t you call?”

“I was confused,” Steve answered gently. “Tony… I saw Bucky. But he didn’t know me.”

Shock crossed Tony’s expression and the room was silent for a long moment. “Crap. Alright, I’ll start JARVIS working on a locator program. We’ll find him, Steve. I promise.”

\-----

Skye sat in the medical wing after returning from HYDRA’s antarctic base. Lincoln was still in critical condition, Mike Peterson wasn’t in great shape, and the third person they’d rescued was still unconscious.

Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier. Coulson had word from Fury that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were looking for him. But they’d decided it would be better to keep his presence quiet until he was back on his feet and let him decide if he wanted to be found.

So Skye sat between her friend and the Soldier. Just to be on the safe side. And also, her presence made the medical staff feel better about working around such a famous assassin. Though whether or not it would be enough for her to stop him, should he wake intent on damage… well, that remained to be seen.

A few hours later, Skye was startled when Barnes snapped awake suddenly. He was reaching for the IV tube in his flesh arm when she intercepted him. “Stop, please. It’s okay, you’re safe here. We’re not going to hurt you, I promise.”

Barnes froze, staring at her with his big blue eyes. Eyes full of hope under the fear. “You might be the only one who could tell me that and be believed,” he whispered. “Show me. Please.”

She blinked at him as the words on one of her soulmarks registered, then smiled softly. She pulled up her sleeve to reveal her mark and saw him relax fully. “I’m glad. The drip is just saline; you were badly dehydrated. You’re not on the HYDRA base anymore; we brought you out with us when we went in to rescue our friends.”

Barnes nodded, his expression softening as he caught her hand gently in his. “Can you… do you know someone… who could help me?”

“Possibly,” she said cautiously. “What kind of help do you need?”

“HYDRA left… triggers. Programming. In my mind. I don’t… don’t want to be their Asset anymore. No more assassinations. No more innocent deaths.”

She nodded her understanding. “I think we can help with that. I won’t let you hurt anyone if I can help it.”

He looked relieved as he squeezed her hand gently in thanks. “Then I guess… I just have one more question.”

“What’s that?”

“What’s your name, doll?”

She smiled softly. “It’s Skye.”

“A name as beautiful as you are.” He smiled when she blushed.

“What would you like me to call you?” she asked instead.

“I’m… not quite sure I feel like myself yet. For now, I guess… call me James.”

“I can do that.” She brushed the fingertips of her free hand over his face. “I should probably call a doctor. My friend Jemma is one of them; would it be alright if I asked her to look over you?”

He hesitated, but then nodded. “Yeah, but will you stay?”

“Of course.” She reached over and pressed the button for the intercom. Fortunately, Jemma answered it. “Jemma, our guest is awake. He’s alright if you come to check on him, but just you. Is that alright?”

Jemma hesitated a moment, but then asked, “Will you be there?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s fine. I’m on my way.”

“Something special about you, doll, that she’s more comfortable if you’re here?”

Skye smiled. “You could say that, yeah. I’m not quite what I seem.”

“That’s good. Keeps you safer.”

She was a little surprised at his calm acceptance but dismissed it. They could talk about it later.

\-----

Bucky walked with his soulmate as she said goodbye to her father. The previous weeks had seen a lot of progress in his mental stability, so he was allowed to move freely around the base. Most often, he stayed with Skye if he could. Before walking away, Cal gave him a small, strained smile and said, “Take good care of my little girl.”

“I promise,” Bucky answered in a low voice. He put his arm around Skye as they watched Cal leave the base; she managed to hold onto her composure until the door clanged shut. Then she turned to him, breath catching in a sob. “Shh, little angel,” he soothed her, knowing that it was something her parents had called her when she was small. “It’ll be alright.”

When she didn’t answer, he scooped her up and carried her to her room. He sat with her on his lap, cradling her shaking body against his. “I know I helped make this decision,” she cried. “I want him to have a new life, to be happy and healthy again. But… he’ll never remember me. And that hurts so much…”

“I know, doll. I know. But I’ll always be here for you. You don’t have to do this alone.” He rocked her gently.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” she whispered when she’d calmed down.

“God willing, you’ll never have to find out,” he soothed. “I’m not goin’ anywhere without you, Skye.”

“Promise?” Her voice sounded pitiful, even to herself. But her own mother had tried to kill her; stability wasn’t ever going to be something she could believe in easily.

“I promise,” he answered solemnly, knowing how much she needed to hear it. He held her close and kissed her softly.

“What if… what if our other soulmates don’t want me?”

“Never happen,” he swore to her. “Stevie’s gonna love you.”

She shrugged, knowing she’d have to take his word for it. “And the fourth? They could be together by now, too.”

“I’m sure he’ll love you, too, Skye. You’re strong and capable, but you still have a kind heart and try to see the best in everyone. You’re also the most beautiful girl I ever saw, an’ I mean that. They’ll think so too.”

She sighed softly. “You make it sound so simple, James. But it can’t be. Nothing ever is.”

He held her closer for a moment. “Maybe it’ll be me they don’t like. I’m not the same man I was, last time I saw Steve. I still don’t know how to be. Maybe he can’t get past that. Maybe our fourth will be someone I hurt in the past, and they won’t be able to get over that.”

“I’ll stay with you. No matter what. Even if a full bond never works,” she whispered.

“And I’ll stay with you. Always. I love you, Skye.”

She smiled; he’d never said those four words to her, but she knew he meant it. The bond was drawing them together, but more… they were each there for the other through the turmoil of the past few weeks. They’d gotten close very fast. Part of her hoped that, wherever he was, Steve had someone to support him similarly.

“I love you too, James. And I will keep loving you, even when you remember more about being Bucky.”

\-----

“Doctor Garner says you’re ready. Both of you,” Coulson told Skye and Barnes. The smile he gave them was one of pride and pleasure in their accomplishments over the past few months. Together and separately. They’d grown stronger and more stable, in control of themselves and their abilities.

“Thank you, sir,” Bucky answered. “It hasn’t been easy.”

“The things worth achieving never are,” Coulson told him with a smile. “So I have something for you, by way of celebration.”

Skye blinked, then smiled. “You do? Aww, DC…” She took the small, white card that Coulson handed over and looked at it. “A hotel reservation?”

“In New York,” Bucky said softly and Coulson nodded. “The number on the back goes directly to Maria Hill. She will help with the arrangements to meet up with Captain Rogers, if that’s what you want.” He smiled gently at Skye. “You deserve to be happy. Both of you. Even if that means you choose a different team.”

“But the Inhumans…”

“Will still be there if you decide that’s what you want. We’ll set you up a base in New York if we have to.” He sighed. “I don’t want to lose you, Skye. But your happiness is important, too, and soulbonds are hard to ignore. So we’ll make the best of it, whatever you decide.”

“I… don’t know what to say, DC.”

“Thank you, Director,” Bucky said when Skye remained quiet. “We both appreciate the opportunity. We won’t just disappear, I promise. We’ll keep in touch.”

Skye nodded. When Coulson got up to see them out of the office, she threw herself into his arms. Coulson caught her awkwardly, still adapting to the loss of his hand. But he held her close for a long moment.

“Good luck, the both of you. The reservation starts tomorrow; May will drop you off at La Guardia in the morning.”

“Thanks, DC,” Skye reiterated. “I’ll text you when we’re settled in.” He nodded and shooed them out of his office to go pack.

\-----

Thanks to Maria Hill, getting in to see Steve was easy. She met them in the lobby of the tower, waved at Security and led them to an elevator that took them directly up to the meeting level.

“He should be here in a minute,” Maria said with a smile. “Cap’s never late.”

“Thanks,” Skye said with a small smile. “Here goes everything.”

“It’ll be fine. You found his best friend,” Maria replied. Skye glanced at Bucky and they realized that Coulson hadn’t told her. Probably for the best, though.

“I suppose I did. Thanks again for your help, Maria.”

“You’re very welcome.” She left them alone in the room. Bucky drifted over to the window, looking out. Skye joined him and smiled when he wrapped his arm around her. He’d finally stopped worrying about holding her with his prosthetic arm and she was glad he could finally relax. Fitz and Simmons had been working for weeks on an alternative, anyway. Something better, more fully functional.

They turned together when they heard the door open; Steve paused just inside the doorway, his expression one of shock. “Bucky,” he whispered. He stepped closer, one arm outstretched.

Skye stepped back, leaning against the wall as she stood aside to let Bucky greet the friend and soulmate he hadn’t seen in seventy years. Compared to that… she could wait a few more minutes.

“Hey, punk.” Bucky stepped closer to Steve, then stalled. “I’m… sorry…” But Steve didn’t let him say anything further; he took the last few steps and pulled Bucky into his arms. They clung to one another silently for several minutes, and when they stepped back both seemed much more relaxed. Bucky pulled Steve in for a kiss and they both smiled when they parted.

“Nothin’ to be sorry for, Buck. We’ve pretty much pieced out what happened.”

Bucky nodded. “So, we’re okay?”

“Yeah. We’re okay.”

“Good. Then there’s someone I’d like you to meet.” Bucky towed Steve to where Skye waited patiently with a small smile on her face and a soft look in her eyes. “This is Skye. Skye, this is Steve.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Skye said, speaking first. “The Howling Commandos were kind of my heros as a kid.”

The expression on Steve’s face was priceless, but the shock only lasted a moment. “Well, you met the best one first. I hope the rest of us don’t suffer by comparison.” It was the response she expected and she just smiled as she held out her hand. When Steve took it, Bucky stepped behind her and hip-checked her into Steve.

“Bucky!” Steve yelped, his tone admonishing even as he caught Skye. She just started to laugh; Bucky had a mischievous streak almost as big as hers. And really, being in Steve’s arms wasn’t something she was likely to complain about. She just hugged him tightly and then let him set her back on her feet.

“Relax, Stevie,” Bucky responded, chuckling. “She ain’t gonna mind. She’s cuddly, our Skye is.”

With a soft smile, Steve looked down at her. “Well, if the lady doesn’t object then I surely won’t.” He held her for a moment more, then stepped away. “Thank you for finding Bucky, and for bringing him back here.”

“Like I was gonna leave him as he was,” Skye answered with a roll of her eyes. “Even if he hadn’t been my soulmate, helping him was the right thing to do. And now with you, that’s three out of four for me.”

Steve’s eyes went wide as he realized that, for those few brief moments of relief and shock, he’d forgotten about Tony. “FRIDAY, please call Tony down here.”

“Yes, Captain,” a softly accented voice lilted in response.

Skye looked up at Steve, perplexed for a moment. Then her eyes went huge. “Wait… you mean… Tony Stark…?”

Steve nodded. “Yeah. He’s our fourth. He was one of the first people I met after SHIELD found me, and he’s been a huge help to me in adjusting to the modern world.”

“Then I guess I owe him thanks, too,” Bucky said quietly.

A few minutes later, a rather disgruntled Tony walked into the meeting room. “I hope this is important, Capsicle; I was kind of busy.” He paused abruptly when he realized that there were more people in the room than just Steve.

Steve just snorted, not the least bit intimidated. “I suppose that depends on whether you consider it important to meet the rest of our soulmates. If not, then by all means go back to what you were doing.”

Tony looked from Barnes to the strange girl standing by Steve and harumphed. “So you found him first, huh?” he asked. “We’ve been looking for months.”

“I wasn’t looking,” Skye said quietly. “For any of you, really. Not everyone finds their soulmate.”

Steve frowned. “Didn’t you want to?”

Skye just shrugged and moved back to the windows, staring out silently.

“She’s had a rough life,” Bucky answered for her, glancing from Steve to Tony. “Cut her some slack, yeah?”

Tony smiled a little and nodded. “I was never sure how I’d end up hearing that from you. Guess I know now.”

Bucky nodded in acknowledgment and crossed over to Skye. “Skye, darlin’, you know he don’t know any better. I’m sure he didn’t mean to upset you.”

She sighed. “I know that. I just… didn’t think it’d be so hard.”

“Why don’t we go upstairs?” Tony suggested after a moment, running a hand through his hair. “We can get some lunch, maybe a couple of drinks. Get to know each other where it’s comfortable.”

Bucky glanced at Skye, and when she nodded he tugged her away from the window. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“What would you like for lunch?” Tony asked as he led them into the elevator. “I can have the kitchen whip up just about anything.”

Skye shrugged. “I’m not fussy. Anything is fine.”

Tony looked back at her with a smile. “Anything is possible. What would you _like_?”

She studied him for a moment, then smiled a little. “A grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.” Comfort food might be a good thing, with the afternoon facing them.

“Relay to the kitchen, FRIDAY,” Tony said, chuckling. “And add a ham and swiss on rye for me.”

“I’ll have what Skye’s having,” Bucky said when Tony paused to look at him.

“Couple of sandwiches sound good,” Steve agreed.

“Drinks?”

“Coffee?” Skye asked. “Or tea is fine, too.”

“We have plenty of coffee,” Tony replied with a smirk. “Too many of us depend on it.”

When they reached Tony’s public floor, he headed straight for the bar area. A couple of water bottles were tossed in Steve’s direction, which he shared with Bucky. On one end of the bar sat a high end coffee/espresso machine. “How do you take your coffee, sweetheart? Or would you prefer a latte?”

Wide-eyed, Skye studied the array of flavors and choices. “Um… Irish Cream latte, please?” She watched Tony make himself an Irish Coffee - black with whiskey - while the machine produced her latte, to which he added a generous shot of Irish Cream. She hadn’t really meant to go for alcohol (he had just the flavoring too), but what the heck.

She took a sip and smiled slowly. “Perfect. Thank you.”

“Anything for our girl,” he answered quietly. He escorted her towards the couches where Steve and Bucky had settled; lunch had arrived while Tony had made coffee, so as they sat they divided out everyone’s requests. “Most of the rest of us have had pretty public lives; will you tell us about yourself, Skye?”

She’d known this was coming. She toyed with her food, trying to delay the inevitable. Dunking her sandwich in the bowl of soup first, she chewed and swallowed slowly. “Yeah, I will. You’re not gonna like it, though.”

“Why not?” Tony was curious, but listening.

“Because it will show you just how little I belong here,” she answered, gesturing to the luxury all around them. “I grew up an orphan. St. Agnes’ orphanage, in Hell’s Kitchen; and let me tell you, the nuns were ridiculously hard on me. Didn’t want me to turn out to be the kind of girl with _three men_ as soulmates. Add to that the fact that I never stayed in any foster home for more than three or four months, and my childhood was pretty much a nightmare. I found out eventually that I moved so much because of an invisible SHIELD protocol; it was supposed to keep me safe. But…”

“No real home of your own, no stability. I’m sorry, Skye,” Steve said, his tone sympathetic.

She nodded. “I finally ran away from the last foster home when I was 16. My foster-father was a perv; caught him spying on me. He had… ideas... about girls with multiple soulmarks.” Her eyes were on her food, so she didn’t see three outraged looks. Even Bucky hadn’t known this part; she seldom talked about her childhood. He knew more about her time hacking and with SHIELD.

“Long story short, I couldn’t go back to the orphanage. The nuns would never have believed me anyway. So I just took off. Did some odd jobs, an old friend from the orphanage - a few years older than me - helped me get my GED while he was in college. Hid me in his dorm room as often as he dared.” She smiled a little, the fond memories of her only real friend removing the tension of her earlier admission. “It wasn’t so bad. I got good with computers and wound up in the Rising Tide. Wasn’t big on secrets, since my whole life was one massive blank. I had no birth certificate, no ID when I arrived - everything I had at the orphanage was ordered by the nuns. The only thing I could ever find was one single file, redacted by SHIELD. So of course I learned to hack. Finally got myself on SHIELD’s radar. Figured if I couldn’t get the info from the outside, maybe from the inside…” She shrugged.

“So you worked for SHIELD before it fell?” Steve asked.

Skye gave him an odd look. “Yes. And I still do.”

“Come on, Steve. You must’ve realized that some of it survived when Fury brought a freaking helicarrier to Sokovia!” Tony broke in.

“The world still needs SHIELD,” Skye added. “We’ve been working to take down HYDRA, to keep people safe from the kind of things that don’t make it onto the superheroes’ radar. Besides, my team has been the only family I’ve got for a couple of years now. We wouldn’t let something like HYDRA ruin us forever.”

Bucky grinned. “And it landed you neat powers, even if getting them wasn’t happy for you.”

With a chuckle, Skye nodded. “Yeah, I know. It’s been a rough couple of years. But here we are. And it brought us all together. I would never have walked into this tower on my own. Of course, if I hadn’t found James then I would never have known who the handwriting belonged to either.”

Tony set his dishes aside and moved to kneel beside Skye’s chair. He held his hand out, and she slowly placed her hand in his. “You’re an amazing, strong woman, Skye,” he began slowly, measuring his words before he spoke them. “And even if you aren’t used to comfort and luxury, I think you’ve more than earned it anyway. I intend to spoil you as much as you’ll allow, because you’re special and because you’re our soulmate. And because everyone deserves to find something good in life.”

Skye studied his expression, then slowly smiled. “I think I can handle that.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **4000 words exactly. And yes, there is more of this coming. I couldn’t quite let it go here.**


	16. Monopolizing the Area - Sharon Carter/Daisy Johnson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sharon Carter & Daisy Johnson. Not canon compliant, as it's set in the near future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was requested by an Anon on Tumblr, but I got to thinking and it almost wrote itself. I hope it came out alright.

**April 11, 2016**

Daisy walked quietly through the graveyard; it was a beautiful day, and the cemetery was very quiet. She followed the path, lost in thought, until she reached the right area.

Kneeling on the grass beside the grave, she spent a moment quietly removing stray branches and dead leaves before placing her small bouquet against the stone.  _ Pink carnations for a promise to remember, yellow roses for friendship, and irises for faith, hope and the value of friendship. _ She smiled to herself as she mentally catalogued the flowers and their meanings. It was all true.

“Hey, Trip,” she said aloud; it was one habit the nuns had never tried to break her of, speaking to the dead as if they could hear. “Sorry it took me so long to get here. But if you’re watching the team, you know what we’ve been through the last year or so. What I’ve been through.” She sighed as she reached out to trace his name on the stone.

“I’m sorry, Trip. I’m sorry I went down there and you died because of it.” Tears filled her eyes, and she didn’t stop them from slowly falling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry I didn’t die with you; there were definitely times when I wished I had. But it’s alright, now. I’m gonna be okay, and I know you’d have been happy with that.”

* * *

Sharon Carter stopped on the path near her cousin Antoine’s grave. A young woman sat beside the headstone, one she didn’t recognize, but she didn’t want to intrude. Antoine had so many friends, both inside SHIELD and outside it, that Sharon couldn’t possibly have known them all.

The woman sat in the grass and spoke to the headstone for quite some time. The tears on her face didn’t make her any less beautiful, though; rather than staring at her, Sharon looked away and found her gaze drawn to the bundle of flowers instead. Friendship, faith, hope and memory. A fitting memorial for Antoine, she knew.

The woman finally seemed to realize that she wasn’t alone and looked up. Scrubbed at her face with her hands and then got to her feet. Sharon offered her a hand, and she took it gently.

“I’m sorry,” Daisy said. “I didn’t realize I was monopolizing the area.”

Sharon blinked at her for a moment before giving her a gentle smile; she’d always known her soulmate would apologize for something silly, but she was glad that at least there was no sarcasm in the words on her left arm. “It’s alright. We all grieve in our own ways. Here.” She handed over a travel pack of tissues and Daisy took one gratefully.

“Thanks. This is about the last place I expected to meet you, though. I’m Daisy.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Daisy,” Sharon answered easily. “I’m Sharon.”

Daisy nodded. “Are you here to see him, too?” she asked, looking down at Trip’s grave.

“Yes. He was my cousin; we were kids together. His loss was hard on the whole family.” 

“It was hard on everyone,” Daisy agreed quietly. 

She frowned as she realized that she didn’t remember seeing this Daisy at the funeral. “I’m surprised I missed you at the funeral. I thought I met everyone who was there,” Sharon commented rather than asking outright.

Daisy’s face fell and she shook her head. “I didn’t make it to the funeral. I was in medical quarantine at the time.”

Sharon’s eyes widened. “Quarantine? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I can’t talk about it, though. It’s kinda classified.”

To Daisy’s surprise, Sharon chuckled a little. “Classified, huh? I know that story rather well. I work for the government myself.”

Sharon’s admission made Daisy relax and smile again, relieved that she understood. “Do you know what Trip did for a living?” she asked, still cautious.

Sharon saw her caution and wondered if perhaps Daisy had also worked for SHIELD before it fell. She didn’t want to bring it up, though, just in case; SHIELD still didn’t have the best reputation to anyone from the outside. “Yeah, more or less. Listen, I’m just on my lunch break. But maybe we can meet up later? Get to know each other better?”

Daisy nodded; that would give her time to do some research and maybe talk to AC, see how much she was allowed to tell her soulmate. “Sure. I’d like that.”

“Here,” Sharon handed over a business card. “My cell is on the back. Call me after 5?”

“I promise,” Daisy agreed.

* * *

It wasn’t until she got back to the Bus that Daisy really looked at the card she’d been given. What she saw made her blink. “Sharon  _ Carter? _ ” she said aloud.

“Carter?” Jemma asked, pausing in the doorway to the lab. “As in Peggy Carter?”

“I don’t know,” Daisy replied absently. “I need to do some checking…” Without another word, she grabbed her laptop and shut herself in the control room.

What she found astonished her.

Agent Sharon Carter. Great-niece of Peggy Carter, founder of SHIELD. The second agent to take the designation Agent 13. Currently employed by the CIA after the fall of SHIELD.

Well, _crap_. She was definitely gonna have to call AC.

* * *

Daisy met with Sharon at a little hole-in-the-wall coffee shop that evening; she was much more relaxed about this meeting, particularly since she had AC’s permission to reveal that SHIELD was still around. Soulmates could seldom keep secrets from each other, and AC wasn’t even asking her to try. Which said a lot, both about how much he cared and about his willingness to trust Sharon.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Sharon said in a low voice as she slid into the booth. Daisy just smiled.

“Not a problem. I’m glad you made it at all.”

“You seem better than earlier,” Sharon commented. “Have a good afternoon?”

“Better than yours, from the look of it,” Daisy answered with a chuckle. Sharon did, indeed, look a little flustered.

“Busy day at work. Wrapping up a project.”

Daisy nodded slowly. “I’d imagine working for the CIA can be stressful.” Sharon’s eyes narrowed, but Daisy held up her hand. “Please, hear me out. I did some research this afternoon, and I know who you are… who you were before SHIELD fell.”

Sharon relaxed immediately. “You’re former-SHIELD as well?” she asked with a sigh of relief.

But Daisy shook her head, lowering her voice. “Not former. Current. Agent Daisy Johnson; I stuck with my team after SHIELD fell, and we’ve been trying to rebuild and work against HYDRA both.”

“But with Fury dead…”

“Some of us were too involved in our projects to just give up after what happened in DC. Some of us knew our best chance of surviving was together; Trip was part of that team, too, Sharon.”

“But…” Sharon sighed, then shook her head. “I always wondered about that. I thought I could get him into the CIA with me, but he turned me down. Said he was happy with what he’d found. So you still have a team, then?”

“A little more than that now, but yes.” Daisy glanced around. “We probably shouldn’t discuss it here, though. It’s not really secure.”

Sharon nodded. “I’m headed back to DC tomorrow…”

“So we really only have tonight, at least here?” Daisy asked with a sigh of resignation. “Come on, then. Let’s get out of here.”

Sharon agreed and they took their coffees to go. They walked a while in silence, Sharon following Daisy’s lead as she clearly had a destination in mind. But before they could get anywhere, Sharon stopped.

“Daisy,” she began softly. Daisy turned to look at her, biting her lower lip. “Listen to me a minute. I know we have a lot we have to discuss. A lot of things to work out, and a lot of secrets we’re probably both keeping. But I want you to know something.”

“What is it?” Daisy asked in a low voice, almost vulnerable.

“I want to do whatever it will take for this, us, to have a chance. I don’t want our jobs to tear us apart before we ever have a chance to really be together,” Sharon said, her voice taking on a note of determination.

Dark eyes brightened as Daisy nodded, slowly beginning to smile. “I want that, too. I’ve never had anyone but my team, Sharon. They’re as much family as I’ve ever had, and that included Trip. And I think he’d say that if it took his death to bring our lives together, it was worth it to him.”

Sharon smiled and took Daisy’s hand, tugging her closer. “I think he would, too. He’d want us to be happy. I can almost see him grinning at us the first time you came to a family gathering. He’d be thrilled for us.”

Daisy sighed and let Sharon fold her into a gentle embrace. They stayed there for a few minutes, just getting comfortable holding each other. Then Daisy pulled back just enough to catch Sharon’s lips in a soft kiss. “Come on, then. Guess we’d better get the difficult part over with so we can focus on working out how we can be together.”

“Great idea,” Sharon agreed with a bright smile.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1541 words. I'm getting pretty good at this.
> 
> The flower meanings came from here: http://thelanguageofflowers.com/


	17. Could Use A Minute (Buffy/Clint/Daisy)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sincerely apologize that it has been so long since I posted one of these. Life has been busy and I've been working on other projects.
> 
> In point of fact, it has been so long that I can't actually remember who requested this one... I know, I'm terrible.

“Dammit!” Buffy swore softly as she glared at the demon with her knife in its throat. “That was a new sweater!” She glared at the corpse as it fell, claws still tangled in her ruined sweater.

She didn’t have time to fret over it, though. More were coming. Xander and Willow were on their feet behind her, guarding her back and each other’s as she tried to bottleneck the demons between trees and the ten-foot wrought iron fence that surrounded the park they’d been picnicking in. It was just barely sunset; they’d thought they’d be safe for a little while longer. But apparently these demons weren’t bothered by the sunlight.

All of a sudden the cluster of demons were thrown off their feet by a wave of… something. Something that went around the three humans facing them and left them unharmed. Buffy spared a moment to glance over her shoulder and saw a young woman - probably several years younger than herself and her friends - in a black jumpsuit and heavy gauntlets.

Willow took advantage of the distance to put up a magical shield. But the glance she shared with Buffy told the Slayer that it wouldn’t hold long.

“Sorry to interrupt, but you looked like you could use a moment,” the woman said in a friendly tone. “I’m Daisy.” Buffy blinked; those were her soulmark words, one set of them anyway, but she didn’t really have time to focus on this Daisy. The demons had struggled back to their feet and were oncoming again.

Buffy and the stranger dove into the fray together as Willow’s shield failed. Daisy was a good fighter, not as quick or as strong as a Slayer but whatever power she was using helped make up the difference. “How do we contain them?” Daisy asked.

“We don’t. Just kill them. They don’t belong on our plane anyway,” Buffy answered, then silently cursed herself. If this girl was her soulmate, she’d been saddled with a really lousy soulmark all her life.

“Well, then,” Daisy commented after a moment, letting loose a burst of vibration towards the creepy looking demons again. “You’re sure they’re not people transformed somehow?”

Buffy shook her head. “I’m sure. They come from one of the hell-dimensions, and I’m perfectly happy to send them back there.”

Daisy smiled, and Buffy’s breath caught at how the smile transformed her face. “Cool. Let’s send them back, then.” She drew her guns - not ICERS, mostly because she didn’t think ICERS would affect whatever these things were.

The rest of the fight didn’t actually take all that long. Daisy was lethal with her guns, once she stopped worrying about killing them. They had one close call; Daisy got pinned by a demon, and it managed to gouge her arm with its claws, but an arrow in the throat had killed it. Daisy didn’t question where the arrow had come from, she just used her powers to shove the body aside so she could get up.

And suddenly, it was over. Daisy took a moment to catch her breath, trying not to flinch as the pain of her various scrapes and bruises caught up with her. “You’re injured,” a gentle voice came from behind her, and she turned to face the red-headed woman. “Will you let me help you?”

Daisy studied the woman for a moment - older than she was, but that didn’t mean a whole lot really. Her eyes were kind and her expression gentle. And those words, too, were written on her body, but in the blue script that indicated a platonic relationship rather than a romantic one.

“Yeah, I will. It’d be nice to know your name, though,” she answered after a moment.

“Oh! I’m Willow. That’s Xander, and the blonde is Buffy.” Willow approached more confidently, knowing that this girl wouldn’t hurt them. Soulmate bonds, even platonic ones, were that kind of strong. She held her hands over the worst injury, on Daisy’s arm, and they began to glow as she whispered a healing chant.

Warmth enveloped Daisy for a soothing eternity that was really only a minute or two. When it faded, she felt healthier than she ever had been. Even her nagging fatigue was gone. “I… wow. Thank you.”

Willow smiled brightly. “Glad to help.”

“Don’t wanna interrupt, ladies, but someone want to check on who  _ he _ is?” Xander broke in, his eyes on someone up in the treetops.

Daisy looked around, following Xander’s gaze, and Buffy came to stand beside her - the pair of them between her friends and the unknown.

“Come out, whomever you are,” Buffy called. “If you don’t mean us any harm, we won’t hurt you either.”

After a long moment, during which Buffy assumed the figure was considering her words, a man dropped out of the branches of a tall tree. He was lithe and compact, bow held in his hand but the arrows remained in the quiver on his back. He studied them silently, much as they did with him.

It only took Daisy a few seconds to connect the bow and arrows to the figure silhouetted in the park’s street lamps. “Agent Barton,” she whispered, and Buffy glanced at her.

“Barton?” she asked in a low voice.

“Oh!” Willow squeaked from behind them. “Hawkeye! One of the Avengers!”

He walked through the trees and smiled. “That would be me,” he said as he turned on the charm. Daisy rolled her eyes. He continued to smile as he approached them. “And who would you be sweetheart?” he asked, looking from Daisy to Buffy and back. 

Buffy and Daisy traded a glance, then Buffy shrugged. “Buffy Summers.”

“Agent Daisy Skye Johnson.” His blue eyes showed no recognition, but that was hardly surprising. 

“Agent of what?” he asked suspiciously, his hands tightening on his bow as he recognized the name from his soulmarks. He hadn’t ever expected to meet both of them in one night, particularly not the same night  _ they _ met.

“SHIELD,  _ not _ HYDRA. Under the new director.”  

His face went cold and thoughts of soulmate meetings quickly skimmed away from his mind. “New director,” he said, voice deadpan. 

Daisy rolled her eyes. “You didn’t really think SHIELD was just going to vanish because of what happened in DC, did you?”

He frowned, then shrugged. “No, I don’t suppose I did.” Daisy relaxed slowly, and Buffy followed her example.

“This might not be the best place to talk…” Willow ventured, glancing around the lengthening shadows of the twilit park.

“Probably not,” Clint acknowledged. “I probably shouldn’t stay, anyway.”

“I highly doubt the other Avengers would object to you staying a while to meet your soulmates properly,” Daisy commented dryly. “Assuming that we did actually say your words.”

Clint hesitated. “Well, yes, but…”

Buffy shook her head. “But nothing. We’re all fighters, and we all know we could go down at any time. I don’t think anyone will begrudge us a little time for ourselves. Having loved ones makes us stronger; I should know.”

Blue eyes studied her closely, noting the traces of hardship in her eyes and catching the hint of steel in her voice. “Alright, darlin’,” he agreed in a low voice. “Where should we go?”

“We have a safe house nearby,” Buffy offered easily. Daisy raised a questioning eyebrow and Buffy shrugged. “If I can’t trust my soulmates, I can’t trust anyone. You guys coming?”

“Sure,” Daisy agreed. She raised a hand to her earpiece and touched a button. “Quake checking in. Yes. Contact made, with a complication. I’ll be offline for a while.” She paused, listening, then sighed. “I’ll explain later. Short version: I met my soulmates.” She laughed a little when Mack exclaimed in surprise. “I’ll call you later. I promise.” She touched the button on her earpiece, then removed it.

As Buffy led the way to wherever they were going, Xander beside her, Willow fell into step beside Daisy. “Do you have a platonic soulmark, too?” she asked in a low voice.

Daisy nodded and smiled at her. “I’m sorry we couldn’t meet under better circumstances. I’m sure we have a lot in common.”

“Oh, I dunno,” Willow demurred, blushing. “I’m just a common witch. Well, and the tech expert for the Slayers.”

Daisy’s eyes lit up. “You like computers?”

“Oh, yeah. I spent  _ ages _ combing through data when the SHIELD files dumped,” Willow chattered happily. “Only, some of the files I was chasing disappeared before I could get them all.”

“Ah,” Daisy answered, looking sheepish. “That might have been me. I had to go through and erase everything pertaining to my team. To keep everyone safe and off the radar. I was the team’s hacker at that point.”

“You must be good, then! We’ll have to talk more about it sometime. I have a few projects that I could probably use some input on…”

Daisy smiled. “I’d be happy to.” She handed Willow a small card with just an email address on it.

The safe house was a fairly large building, which Buffy accessed with an electronic key-fob. “Welcome to Slayer Central,” she said as she held the door open for everyone.

“Give me the weapons, Buff,” Xander said as they went inside. “I’ll go put them away so you can talk with your soulmates.”

“Thanks, Xan,” Buffy agreed, smiling at her friend as she handed over an assortment of knives as well as her extra stakes. She always carried at least a few, though; no Slayer could ever walk around completely unarmed. “We’ll be in the kitchen.”

“See you later,” Willow said with a wave. “I’ll email you, Daisy!” Daisy waved back with a smile.

“Daisy and Willow, platonic soulmates,” Buffy said in an amused tone. “Sounds cute.” Daisy blinked at her, surprised that they’d been overheard earlier. “Slayer hearing. I’m not far off some of their enhanced,” she nodded towards Clint, “but I have my own variety of saving the world, so we mostly don’t cross paths.”

“Only mostly?” Clint asked in a curious tone as he followed Buffy down the hall, presumably to the kitchen.

“Well, yeah. We had about a dozen slayers on the ground in New York during the Chitter-things invasion.”

“Mostly getting civilians out of the line of fire, if I remember the reports right,” Daisy chimed in. Buffy nodded agreement. 

Clint narrowed his eyes. “SHIELD knows about Slayers?”

“Well, yeah,” Buffy said. She let them into the kitchen and went to the fridge for a water. “Anyone else want anything?”

“Water’s good,” Daisy replied. She turned her attention to Clint. “According to what I know, SHIELD has always had a single point of contact with the Watcher’s Council, and vice versa. Until now, anyway.”

“Damn Fury and his secrets,” Clint muttered.

“I thought Fury was dead?” Buffy asked, sounding confused but not actually surprised that he might not be. She set the requested water down beside Daisy, who smiled her thanks.

“Publicly, yes, but not actually,” Clint answered with a sigh.

Buffy sighed. “This isn’t going to be an easy ‘soulmates found, happily ever after’ story, is it?”

“Given that we all have our own variations on ‘save the world’ jobs,” Daisy answered, chin on her hand and an expression of resignation. “Probably not.”

“Hey, now,” Clint said, smiling. “Even superheros are entitled to a vacation sometimes. I’m sure we can find a way, it just might take a little work.”

“Work is something I know how to do,” Buffy quipped, and they all chuckled a little. “Since I’m no longer the one and only Slayer, vacations can be had.”

“I haven’t had a lot of time off that wasn’t due to medical leave since joining SHIELD,” Daisy agreed with a shrug. “But SHIELD does have provisions for soulmates. It could work.”

“I’m semi-retired, anyway,” Clint explained. “Avengers are mostly on-call. I live on a farm with my sister and her kids. But you’d both be welcome, whenever you’re in the neighborhood.”

“I have no idea what I’d do on a farm,” Buffy replied with a grin. “I’m pretty much city gal.”

“If I can’t get wi-fi, I don’t know what to do with myself either,” Daisy added, shaking her head slightly.

Clint rolled his eyes. “I’m not asking you to come work on the farm,” he snorted. “We have help to handle what Laura and I can’t. But I’d be more than happy to see you, whenever we can. And if you ever need a quiet place to recover…”

“It might not be so bad to be remote,” Daisy agreed. “I said I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t say I wouldn’t be willing to try...”

“Me too,” Buffy said, a vulnerable look in her eyes for a moment. “I’ve kinda been waiting my whole life for this, you know?”

Clint snorted. “I’ve got about ten years on you, sweetheart. Closer to twenty on Daisy. Damn, doesn’t that make me feel old…”

“I remember. I was about seven when I got my second mark. Mom kinda freaked.”

Daisy smiled a little sadly. “If I’d met you a year ago, I’d have been after you to tell me when your marks appeared.”

“Your birthday, of course,” Buffy said, frowning in confusion.

Clint was a little quicker on the uptake. “You didn’t know your own birthday?”

“Nope. Was dropped in an orphanage as an infant. Spent most of my life thinking my parents were dead.” She shrugged. “They weren’t, though they are now.” Well, Cal wasn’t, but since he’d never remember her… the full truth could wait for another time.

“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, moving to hug Daisy tightly. “I can’t imagine life without my mom. Losing her my second year of college was bad enough.”

“I spent some time in the foster system, too,” Clint said, holding out his hand, which Daisy took readily. “I know how that feels.”

“Thanks, both of you. I’m alright, really. I’ve had time to come to terms with what happened, and it’s okay.”

“If you ever want to talk about it…” Clint offered.

“I’ll let you know. Both of you,” Daisy agreed.

“So… what do we do now?” Buffy asked.

“Take a long weekend and get to know each other better?” Clint suggested.

“I’d have to check with Willow, but I don’t think we have an apocalypse brewing this weekend,” Buffy replied with a grin. “But if one pops up, I might have to come back fast.”

“I’ll have to call the boss.” Daisy checked her phone, not at all surprised to see a couple of missed calls from the silenced device. “But it might be possible.”

Clint moved closer, reaching out slowly to them. Both women shifted closer as well and they folded into a three-way hug. “Check and see, please? I’d really like to bring you both home with me. Jet’s not far away…”

“I think I’d like that,” Buffy replied softly. Nobody moved for a long moment, despite the need to check in. But then Buffy stood on her toes and lifted her chin, kissing Clint lightly. She brushed a soft kiss over Daisy’s lips as well before gently pulling away.

“I think I would too,” Daisy agreed. When Clint dipped down to kiss her, too, she lifted her lips to meet his halfway.

They might have a lot to work out, but it would be worth it.

For each of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2,559 words. Easily within my limits. At least that's something!


	18. Brilliant and Beautiful (Daisy/Jane)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When brilliant minds meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Artemis Day. Because she's right, fandom does need more of Jane for her own sake.

Jane was frustrated.

Once again, without a word of warning, Thor had left Earth. Immediately after a major crisis.

She sighed and told herself to get over it. Moping over an inconsistent boyfriend wasn’t going to get her theories proven or win her the Nobel prize. And if he couldn’t even be bothered to tell her he was going… well, hopefully her annoyance and anger would carry her through his next arrival.

He’d have to apologize and explain himself if he wanted her to even think about taking him back. Again. 

Fortunately, she’d managed to finally get funding from a number of sources. The attention the possible Nobel prize nomination had brought to her work finally gave her both some credibility and new resources.

And with all her data from the Convergence, she was much closer to a solution than she had been before it. At least this time, she could keep herself busy…

~~~~~~

After tying up the last of her loose ends in the aftermath of Hive’s defeat, Daisy decided she’d better disappear as much as possible. She knew Coulson was trying to find her, and she didn’t particularly want to be found. But she also did still want to help people, just maybe not in the same way anymore.

Not too long ago, she’d seen a notice that a notable - and reliably not-HYDRA - scientist was looking for a new assistant. Astrophysics wasn’t her field, not by a long shot, but the ad was more for someone with organizational skills than practical science skills. And after working so long with Fitz and Simmons, she ought to at least have a basic grasp on the lingo.

She was finally over the worst of the addiction symptoms, but she knew it would be a long time before she was really fully healthy again. Still, a new job with decent benefits and a way to help mankind in general sounded pretty good to her. There might be a slight hitch, given that Dr. Foster was loosely affiliated with the Avengers, but if SHIELD did show up for some reason, Daisy ought to have the skills necessary to slip out before they found her. But she had a cover identity solidly in place - Lani Williams, an orphan aged out of the system in San Diego, California. The name made Daisy smile a little; it was obscure, but “Lani” meant “sky” in Hawiian.

Ultimately, Daisy got the assistant job. She didn’t interview with Dr. Foster herself, but with a woman by the name of Darcy Lewis. Darcy - she insisted on first names - was Dr. Foster’s best friend and former intern-slash-assistant. But her forte was really PR, rather than admin, so she was looking for someone to keep an eye on Dr. Foster when she was busy.

“I know the job description says assistant,” Darcy explained. “But the hardest part of the job isn’t going to be collating data. It’s going to be making sure Janey sleeps most nights and remembers to eat on a regular basis.”

Daisy smiled. “I think I can handle that. Sounds like some old friends of mine, honestly.”

“And what’s your field of specialty?” Darcy asked curiously.

“Honestly? Computer programming and security. I was once a hacker, among other things.”

“Cool,” Darcy said. “You might be able to help Jane tweak her programs, then, even if the physics is out of your range.”

“It’s fine.” Daisy shrugged. “I didn’t expect to be able to help her with her theories. I’d just like to help see what mankind can accomplish with the right minds working on new ideas.”

Darcy grinned. “I like you, Lani. Way better than some of the others. If you want the job, you can start Monday.”

“That would be great. Thank you.”

She actually didn’t see Dr. Foster at all for the first few days of the job. Jane was, according to Darcy, off at some university giving a guest lecture. Which was fine, because it gave Daisy a chance to learn the layout of the labs, start to identify some of the equipment, and boggle a little bit at Dr. Foster’s brilliance without it being embarrassing.

But on Thursday when she arrived, a petite brunette that Daisy immediately identified as Dr. Jane Foster was puttering around the lab with a cup of coffee in her hand.

“Good morning, Dr. Foster,” she greeted her new boss politely.

Jane paused, looking speculatively at Daisy, before offering a tentative smile. “Good morning. You must be the new girl I was told to expect.”

It was Daisy’s turn to freeze as Dr. Foster spoke the words scrawled on her lower back. Which likely meant that Jane had the most politely innocuous soulmark in the world. “That would be me, and I apologize that I didn’t start with something more interesting.”

Jane laughed. “Well, if I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that from someone not my soulmate, I’d have had fewer funding concerns early on. But it doesn’t matter. It’s nice to meet you. Darcy said your name is Lani?”

Daisy’s smile froze for a moment, then she sighed. “That’s the name I’m using right now. I promise I’ll explain, but this is probably not the best place for it.”

Jane just smiled and nodded. “That’s fine. Lani works for now. And please, call me Jane. I really do want to get some work done today, but maybe we can talk over dinner?”

“That would be nice. What’s on the agenda today?”

“I have to rewrite a couple of algorithms to account for some outlier numbers in the data crunch,” Jane said crisply.

“Maybe I can help?” Daisy offered. “Computer programming is my specialty.”

“By all means, grab some coffee and come on over. I’ve put together most of my programs myself, but sometimes it takes me a few tries to get the code right.”

They spent the day working amicably, Daisy returning to her data entry once Jane’s program was running the way she wanted it to. As a side project, she was also quietly upgrading the network security systems. There were several holes, and Daisy suspected that multiple groups were likely watching Jane’s work very closely - SHIELD was likely, as was HYDRA, and possibly groups like the CIA, MI5 and who knows what other countries.

Jane didn’t argue when Daisy brought in lunch, just eating quickly and neatly while she kept working. Daisy began to see why Darcy had warned her that it would be difficult to make Jane take breaks. Of course, she herself was only a little better when she got started on a major project. The day slipped by quickly as she worked on plugging the security holes.

Before either of them knew it, it was nearly 7:00. Daisy saved her work and logged out of the system, heading over to the lab table where Jane was still working diligently. “Hey, Jane?” she called softly.

“Hmm? What?” Jane blinked, clearly still more focused on her work than Daisy’s voice.

“If we’re going to get dinner yet tonight, we’d probably better go soon. It’s 7:00,” Daisy said.

“Oh, right. Sure, just give me a minute.” Jane finished her current calculation and hit save with a sigh. Still, she was getting used to keeping more regular hours, and she did have the intriguing puzzle of her soulmate to figure out.

“What should we do for dinner?” Daisy asked when Jane joined her by the door.

“You didn’t really want to talk anywhere public,” Jane said with a small smile. “So I thought maybe we could grab some takeout and go up to the roof? I love watching the stars come out, and there aren’t any cameras up there except the ones that watch the roof door and the parking lot.”

Daisy smiled; it was nice to know that her soulmate took her concerns seriously. Even if she didn’t yet know enough to really understand them.

They took their Thai food up to the roof and settled on a couple of old lawn chairs Jane had stashed there for stargazing purposes. Daisy checked and confirmed that they were out of range of the roof cameras, just as Jane had promised. A quick electronic sweep found no listening devices nearby, either.

Perfect.

“So,” Jane began after they’d both started to eat. “I’d guess you know a fair bit about me, but you’re welcome to ask questions of course. But all I know about you is that Darcy liked you enough to hire you as my assistant. Even if she thought there was something you weren’t telling her.”

Daisy smiled a bit. “She’s bright, I’ll give her that,” she said with a sigh. “And I will explain, I promise. But… I thought you were with Thor?”

Jane blushed. “When I met him, I just kinda fell headlong. It didn’t hurt that the very existence of Asgard, of their Bifrost and all their technology could prove several of my theories in the absolute. I thought that maybe I didn’t need Fate, you know?” Daisy couldn’t help but nod, though her smile took on a tinge of sadness. “But we’re not together right now. He went back to Asgard after Sokovia, once again without any word to me about why or when he’d be back. So I guess I see where I rate on his priority list.”

“Well, I can see how the fate of the universe might hit a pretty high priority level,” Daisy said, though her voice held a weight of sympathy. “But he should’ve called before he left, at least.” She leaned back in her chair, eating a couple of bites before resuming. “Still, I can’t really judge you for having had other relationships. I did, too. I even loved him.”

“But..?” Jane prompted gently.

“He died,” Daisy admitted in a low voice. “Saving me, actually. He made me promise not to sacrifice myself to atone for the… the problems… I’d been caught up in the middle of. And he took the hit for me, because he wanted me to live.”

“I’m so sorry, Lani,” Jane said, setting down her chopsticks to rest her hand on Daisy’s arm. “I didn’t mean to bring up harsh memories.”

Daisy shook her head. “No, it’s alright. Lincoln deserves to be remembered, even as I move on with my life.” She offered Jane a smile. “But my name isn’t really Lani, you know.”

“I know. Will you tell me your real name?”

Daisy nodded. “For a long time I was known as Skye. Just Skye. I was an orphan, aged out of the system, never adopted. That sort of thing doesn’t make for great childhood memories, so I ditched the name the nuns gave me and picked my own. Then, a couple of years ago, I found out that my parents weren’t as dead as I thought they were, but they never recovered after losing me. Short version, my dad had to kill my mom to keep her from killing me in a… a moment of insanity. And SHIELD arranged for my dad to be rehabbed rather than put in prison, but as a side effect he doesn’t remember me anymore. To honor my dad, who loved me enough to give up everything - including me - I now use the name he gave me as a baby. I’m Daisy Johnson.”

“And formerly of SHIELD,” Jane finished with a small smile. “Thank you for being honest with me; I won’t ask questions you can’t answer, but it’s nice to know that you won’t outright lie to me.”

“You knew?” Daisy asked, startled.

“I suspected,” Jane clarified. “But the word is out on several channels that some important people are looking for you. I didn’t hear about it, but Darcy did. Especially after the problems with the UN over the Sokovia Accords, people with powers are high on the list of ‘to be watched for’ all over the place.”

Daisy sighed, picking at what was left of her food for a minute. “And what do you think?”

“I think you’re the best assistant I’ve had since Darcy, and if you want to stay here and work with me, I don’t care who’s looking for you,” Jane said forthrightly.

“Why?”

Jane smiled. “Because everyone deserves the freedom to be who and what they are, as long as they’re not hurting anyone by doing it. And because soulmates are usually drawn together for a reason.”

“I… I think I’d like to stay, then,” Daisy said softly.

“Cool,” Jane said. “I doubt we can keep our soulbond from people indefinitely, but I’m fine with treating ‘Lani’ like a pet name or a nickname. Besides, it’s just another part of who you are.”

“You really are amazing, you know that?” Daisy said softly. Jane’s smile brightened, but she shook her head. “You are. You’re brilliant, beautiful, and very understanding as well.”

“Thank you,” Jane answered, blushing. “Though you’re no slouch yourself, you know. I think we’ll be a great team.”

Daisy held out her hand hesitantly, and Jane took it without even a second’s thought. They sat quietly together, watching the sky as the stars came out. Neither knew what the future would bring, from SHIELD or the UN or just from Jane’s academia. But they’d face it all together. Whatever came.

  
  
  



	19. Your Turn, Come! (Skye/Pietro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A QuickQuake AoU alternate. #pietrolives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet started out as a birthday prompt for the Marvel-ous Birthdays collection. And then I realized how very easily it could be turned into a soulmates meeting! So while most of it will be familiar to those who've read the Birthdays version, there are some changes obviously. :) I hope you like it.
> 
> In this, presume that Coulson sent Skye to Sokovia with the Helicarrier in AoU.

**** **** Skye dashed off the helicarrier’s lifeboats with a dozen other agents, herding civilians to safety. Her powers were much better under control since Lai Shi, but she was laying low for the moment. Just another agent. Coulson had asked her to, though she knew he would trust her judgment if it really came down to circumstances.

They’d sent one wave of ships back to the carrier already, making room for the second wave when Skye saw Hawkeye scoop up a child in a protective hold as a quinjet bore down on them. “No!!” she screamed, flinging out her hands as the jet began to fire. A blue-ish blur appeared in the line of fire, resolving into a silver-haired but otherwise young-looking man just as the first shockwave of Skye’s power unleashed.

The bullets were all knocked off trajectory, flying sideways into a building. One grazed the silver man’s shoulder, but nothing near as serious as it could have been. He blinked at her, shock written all over his face as he realized what she’d done. Ignoring him and Hawkeye, who was getting to his feet, Skye shoved another wave of power at the jet, hoping to mess up its targeting before it could fire again. Even Hawkeye seemed taken aback by what she’d done for a moment. 

A second later, an enraged roaring was heard as Hulk landed on the jet. It spun away, trying to shake off its giant attacker.

“Now’s your chance, run!” Skye yelled across the street, shaking the men out of their surprise. Except that one of them, the younger, gave her a smoldering look before he moved.

Without further hesitation, Hawkeye clutched the kid tighter to his chest and started to run for the lifeboat. Then the younger man grabbed them and a blur resulted in all three arriving at the top of the ramp.

“Look out!” Skye heard the yell, and turned just in time to dodge a strike from one of Ultron’s bots. It managed to get a hold of her arm and started to twist, but she raised her other hand and blasted it with her power. The cat was already out of the bag, so she might as well use all her abilities. She sighed over her wrenched shoulder, but knew it would be minor compared to the other injuries people had sustained in this fight. And only then did she realize, belatedly, that the voice had spoken the first half of her soulmark words. Of course, she had heard that much several times before, so she didn’t get her hopes up anymore.

“Your turn, come!” The young man appeared beside her, and she rather enjoyed the way his accented words flowed over the remaining words of her soulmark. Before she could properly process the realization that this man was  _ her soulmate, _ finally after so many near-misses, the world went hazy for a moment. Then she was also on the lifeboat and struggling to regain her equilibrium after experiencing his vertigo-inducing speed.

Just thinking about his obvious super-speed sent her brain straight into the gutter.

Unable to just let it go, though, Skye quipped, “You know, I don’t like being told what to do unless I’m naked.” She winked as his startled expression quickly turned into a smirk, but she knew they still had work to finish. She triggered her comm. “Boat 19’s full, we should go.”

The ramp hissed as it folded up into the lifeboat and the announcement came to secure everyone for return to the helicarrier. The young man was still smirking at her. Skye rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, the kevlar-lined jumpsuit creaking a little with her movement. “What?”

“I am picturing you naked, and I think I would enjoy issuing orders in such circumstance,” he replied with a leer and a grin. 

Skye laughed. “I suppose I deserved that. I’m Skye.” She held out her hand, and blinked a moment when he caught it and kissed her knuckles rather than shaking it.

“Pietro,” he introduced himself without letting go of her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Pietro.” She would have said more, but her comm beeped in her ear. She held up her free hand, and saw him nod before she responded. “Agent Skye here. Yes, ma’am. Understood.”

“Is there a problem?” Pietro asked, tone sympathetic but curious.

“My team needs me back. As soon as the carrier can spare a jet, I have to go,” she said, wistful regret written on her face.

A hand landed on Skye’s shoulder, and another on Pietro’s as Hawkeye joined them. “I want to thank you both. That kid and I are alive because of you two. You’re both pretty impressive. Though, I think,” he added with a small grin to Pietro, “that I think the lady’s method better, kid.”

“We made bad choices,” Pietro said in a low voice, though Skye could tell he referred to someone else and not to her with his ‘we.’ “I could not let you suffer the consequences of them.”

Skye just shrugged. “We came to save people. Those orders never excluded the Avengers.”

Clint chuckled and nodded. A moment later, they felt the ship land on the carrier. “Come on, Pietro. Your sister should be here any minute.” He clearly had missed the intensity between them, but Skye decided to cut him some slack. From all reports, he’d had a very busy day before nearly dying.

Skye slipped away while the two men spoke; though she really didn’t want to leave her soulmate, DC’s orders hadn’t really left her much choice. She thought it might be easier if she just quietly left without making a scene. Tracking Pietro down with the Avengers shouldn’t be hard, once she had a little downtime. So she helped a group of kids off the lifeboat and into the care of the medics before she sought the flight deck for the jet to take her back to base. She checked her phone to see what was up; according to the data link Coulson needed her to help smooth over a SHIELD visit to Lai Shi.

She sighed again with regret and couldn’t help but glance back towards the bay doors that concealed the refugees from Sokovia as she boarded the jet as. A split second before the ramp raised, a rush of air and a hint of color resolved into Pietro standing next to her. “What the hell?” she demanded, hands on her hips.

“I have decided I should go with you,” he responded with an unrepentant grin. “You are my soulmate. And more, I owe you my life; it is only right that I at least attempt to repay the favor.”

She swore in Mandarin for a moment, glaring at him. “Fine. But only because I don’t have time to argue with you. But my boss isn’t gonna like this, even though you are my soulmate.”

“I do not care,” he replied gently, moving into her personal space and brushing her bangs out of her eyes for her. “I want to help. And I would like to get to know you better, too. Perhaps someday I will have a chance to issue those orders that you will enjoy.”

Skye couldn’t help the slow smile that spread across her face in reply. “We don’t really have time for that now. But maybe we could start with a kiss?”

It was her turn to watch a slow smile grow on her soulmate’s face. Rather than reply, he cradled her face in his hands and kissed her softly.

DC definitely wouldn’t like her coming home with an unknown. But damn, it was worth it.


	20. Fight Now, Talk After? (Buffy/Pietro)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soulmates meet in the heat of battle. Pietro/Buffy (crossover)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This pairing was requested by Shellc. And since I firmly believe in the HEA, especially with shorts, #PietroLives!

Buffy was leading a small team of Slayers on a hunt through Sokovia for a particularly nasty Master Vampire when Ultron decided to make his power play. They quickly gave up on trying to find the nest when the city suddenly became airborne and threw themselves into the fight against murderous robots instead.

Hey, these machines weren’t people, even if they were humanoid. So none of the Slayers felt guilty for taking them to pieces.

Buffy swung her scythe, calling warnings to her team and the civilians they were protecting. Not that she expected everyone to understand English but, “Duck!” and “Run!” were pretty universal concepts. Things were starting to look bad, though. For every ‘bot they dispatched, two more joined the fray.

“Buffy, behind you!” one of her Slayers yelled. Buffy turned automatically, moving her scythe to block when suddenly the world blurred around her. She felt hands - human hands - on her arms, and she turned to study the man who had apparently moved her out of the way of danger.

He was tall, probably around six feet or so, and looked athletic - his clothes did nothing to hide his defined musculature. Silver-blond hair seemed out of place framing his young-looking face, and he had beautiful blue eyes that caught and held hers for long moments.

“Are you all right, Ратник 1 ?” he asked in strongly-accented English. Buffy had never had a weakness for accents before, but the sound of her soulmark words - she had asked Giles about the foreign word that translated to Warrior years ago - sort of made her melt. Even if this wasn’t the time or place for it.

“I’m fine, thank you.” His eyes went wide and she nodded confirmation. Then she glanced around at the chaos of the battle before lifting her scythe again. “Fight now, talk after?”

He smiled and nodded. “I promise.” 

“Good.” A whisper of a touch grazed her cheek in the lightest caress. She grinned back at him quickly and flung herself at a ‘bot about to take a swing at one of her slayers. A blur of motion in her peripheral vision resolved into the figure of her soulmate for a moment as he gathered up a couple of kids who’d gotten to close to the fight and whisked them away again.

Buffy lost track of how long she’d been fighting, only knowing that the ‘bots were apparently all converging on a central location - probably to protect it from the Avengers. She had occasionally heard the Hulk roar in the distance as well as the sounds of gunfire. Iron Man swooped overhead, occasionally blasting ‘bots away from clusters of civilians - and apparently mistook her team for civvies as well. To be fair, most of them were in their late teens, so it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

The arrival of a SHIELD Helicarrier shifted her focus slightly. “Watch their backs,” she called the order to her team, indicating the crush of civilians racing towards the evacuation ships as they touched down. The younger Slayers began chivvying people onto the ships, teaming up to keep the occasional ‘bots at a distance. Everything seemed to be going well.

Until suddenly it wasn’t.

A Quinjet swooped into the opening between buildings, giving it a direct line on the evacuees. Buffy saw the gun deploy from the bottom of the jet; she didn’t know who it was targeting, nor did she care. With a scream of defiance, she flung her scythe at the post supporting the gun. Sparks flew as the scythe impacted the gun, shearing through the metal and causing a couple rounds of bullets to explode at close range - though the first couple of shots made it through.

Then Hulk landed on the jet and it spun out of control as it tried to shake him off.

The threat handled, for the moment, she quickly turned to see if she could help whomever was injured and paused in shock to take in the tableau frozen in front of her. Her soulmate stood protectively in front of another man, who was crouched over to shield a little boy with his own body. The second man and the child seemed uninjured, but her soulmate had two bloody wounds on him: one in his upper arm and one going through his shoulder just above his collar bone.

Buffy almost flew to his side, though she knew on some level that he was much faster than her; she hadn’t even seen him move into the line of fire. She caught him as he began to crumble in pain, the wounds bleeding heavily but fortunately not immediately fatal. Fortunately, Slayer strength bore up under his weight readily enough. “I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

“Hurts,” he grunted, and she nodded.

“I know. We’ll get you fixed up again,” she replied soothingly. The sound of tearing fabric caught her attention and the other man - Hawkeye, she noted now that he was standing - handed her a couple of strips torn from his shirt. “Thanks,” she murmured as she took them and bound up her soulmate’s arm as best she could.

Hawkeye, in the meantime, had made a couple of pads and was trying to keep pressure on the shoulder wound. “Damn it, kid. Hang in there.” He looked up at Buffy. “He’s gonna need serious medical help, fast. Can you help me get him to the transport?”

“Of course,” she agreed. She whistled loudly and the Slayers regrouped around them as the trio headed for the ship; Buffy noted idly that one of them had retrieved her scythe. Hawkeye seemed started to see a half-dozen young women cluster around them, but he only raised an eyebrow as Buffy slipped under her soulmate’s good arm and wrapped an arm around his waist to bear most of his weight as they moved.

“I’m Clint Barton. What’s your name?” Hawkeye asked as they settled into seats. 

“Buffy Summers.” She watched as Clint raised an eyebrow. “Yes, that’s really my name. Not a nickname or anything like that.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Clint replied, raising his hands in conciliation.

“Why… would someone… think it is not… your name?”

Buffy looked down at her soulmate, who managed to give voice to the question though she could tell from both his voice and his eyes that he was in terrible pain. “It’s…” She paused, mentally searching for a way to answer that wasn’t culturally based.

“Years ago, ‘Buffy’ would have been a nickname for the pampered wife or mistress of a rich man, at least in America,” Clint explained readily. “Sometimes it’s a nickname for Elizabeth, but it’s pretty unusual for someone to actually name their kid that.”

“To be fair, I was kind of a spoiled rich kid for a while. Before… the divorce,” she added. One of the other Slayers, a girl named Sarah, approached, and Buffy diverted her attention. “What’s the sitch?”

“Apparently one who hasn’t outgrown valley girl speech,” Clint muttered to himself, but Buffy heard him anyway. Slayer senses and all.

“Scrapes and bruises, but no major injuries,” Sarah reported for the rest of the Slayers. “But we think we should call in a full team to help deal with the… aftermath.”

All the Slayers knew that vampires and other demons would take advantage of the weak and injured after any kind of battle.

“We will,” Buffy agreed firmly. “We’ll call them as soon as we have a little breathing room.”

“Who are you people?” Clint asked, tone suspicious and his expression becoming guarded.

“People who don’t answer to you,” Buffy snapped back.

“They are… clearly… here to help,” her soulmate spoke up, and Buffy realized that with everything happening so fast she still didn’t know his name. “And, she is my soulmate.”

The Slayers, clearly all listening in, gasped in surprise. Followed by several squeals of excitement and glee that Buffy promptly ignored. Instead, she looked down at her soulmate again, brushing a strand of hair away from his eyes. “What’s your name? Now that you know mine…”

“Pietro Maximoff.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Pietro.” Buffy smiled at him as she let her worry for him distract her from Clint’s hard stare. Fortunately, their transport docked with the Helicarrier, and Clint’s attention was quickly taken up by agents asking swift and pointed questions.

When a team of nurses showed up with gurneys for the worst of the wounded, Buffy quickly waved one over. She let them take Pietro from her lap and would’ve stood back to let him go but he grabbed her hand. “Come with me?”

Buffy nodded and turned back to Sarah. “Find someplace out of the way, unless you can help with first aid. Try to stay in pairs or groups. I’ll be back.” They nodded and she followed Pietro’s gurney to medical.

Her soulmate needed some pretty serious stitches, and Buffy wasn’t allowed to follow him into the triage unit, but she waited just outside. She stayed by the window so he could see her. While she waited, she pulled out her phone and sent a couple of texts to Dawn and Xander, so they could get things moving to get more Slayers to Sokovia.

When the nurse waved Buffy into Pietro’s recovery room, she put her phone away and approached quietly. His blue eyes were glazed with a combination of pain and drugs, but they focused on her as best they could anyway. “Hey,” she greeted him softly.

“Hey,” he replied. He turned his hand palm up and shifted in her direction, so she saved him the trouble of reaching out and took his hand herself. At his urging, she perched on the edge of his bed.

“I hope you heal as quickly as you run,” she said after a moment, teasing lightly and hoping he would understand the sentiment.

His lips quirked in a partial smile. “It is only thanks to you that I am here to heal at all.”

Buffy snorted and shook her head. “Perhaps. In any case, rule number one is, ‘don’t die.’”

“I shall remember,” he promised solemnly. “Rules for whom?”

Buffy grinned and made herself more comfortable. “Well, you see, the world is older than you know…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 Translation: Warrior. The word is approximately the same in several Eastern European languages. I used the Serbian version primarily because a lot of the signage we saw in Sokovia in AoU used the Cyrillic alphabet.


	21. Look Out! (Daisy/Wanda)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy/Wanda, something fluffy maybe with them being soulmates and Wanda trying to meet her soulmate for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> February 5 - Daisy/Wanda, something fluffy maybe with them being soulmates and Wanda trying to meet her soulmate for the first time. There is something that stops her every time she tries, so they meet in the oddest way possible please! Birthday prompt ficlet for @berserkbookworm reposted from Marvel-ous Birthdays February.
> 
> Note: In this story, the Maximoffs are technically crossed over from the X-Men universe. The situation is AoS/Avengers-verse, but the twins didn’t need Strucker to give them powers. This is set pre-Avengers and well pre-AoS.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we will be landing in approximately ten minutes…”

Skye tuned out the rest of the announcement; this was the fourth time through, and she’d understood it well enough when the second language used was Mandarin. Instead, she looked out the window to get her first glimpse of Sokovia.

The country was going through a major period of unrest, and the Rising Tide wanted someone there to get first-hand information and possibly hack the local officials for data to spread. Skye had volunteered, partially because Miles was getting overbearing about how she didn’t have to wait for her soulmate and she should just screw fate and have sex with him.

She hoped that by the time she went back to the States, that he’d be fixated on someone else.

When they landed, Skye gathered up her duffel bag and her laptop case and walked out of the airport. She had no checked baggage, and she was staying at a cheap hostel where she’d been assured they spoke English and were open and accepting of college students who wanted to experience the world.

Not that Skye was in college, at least not officially, but they didn’t need to know that.

The next few days were interesting as she joined up with the local equivalents of the Red Cross and Habitat for Humanity, trying to clean up after the most recent terror attacks. The people were grateful for the help and polite enough to always pair her with someone who spoke English as well as Sokovian.

Her partner of the day was a young man named Pietro, who was rather striking with streaks of silver in his dark hair despite the apparent youth of his face. They were working to patch broken drywall before repainting.

“So what has brought you here?” he asked conversationally in his delightfully accented low voice. “You are staying with the students, but you do not behave like the tourists.”

Skye shrugged as she finished cutting around a small hole to make a square that they could fit a patch into. “I know what it’s like to need help and not get it. So when I got here, I decided to help.”

Pietro warmed to her after that admission, and they worked together cheerfully for the remainder of the afternoon. Skye thought it was odd that whenever she asked Pietro for a hand or to pass something over, he was right there with it. Almost as if he were anticipating her requests or something. She just shrugged it off and didn’t ask, though.

One of her interests in the Rising Tide was the notable increase in people with extra-normal abilities, and she didn’t want to scare him off if he was one.

They didn’t work together again for a few days, and Skye rather missed Pietro. But she didn’t complain; maybe he was busy. She assumed he probably had family and some other sort of job and so wasn’t always available. She chatted amiably with whomever she was assigned and learned an awful lot about the Sokovian people and why they were so unhappy.

Things had not been good in this country since the fall of the Soviet Union, and not only were neighboring governments clashing but they were also closer to the middle east and the problems with extremists there. In short, the situation was a mess and most of the so-called civilized countries were keeping out of it. Sokovia didn’t even have a representative in the United Nations.

Skye dedicated her next few weeks to learning everything she could. During the days she spoke to whomever she was working with, including Pietro several more times. She even started picking up some Sokovian through exposure more than anything else. Every evening she typed up stories she’d heard from the many local friends she was making. She did research to learn why international aid groups weren’t here in larger numbers. And she sent reports back across the DarkNet to her Rising Tide contacts, so the news could spread further. And occasionally she worked on her side-projects - the ones that paid the bills.

A few weeks later when Skye and Pietro worked together again, he greeted her with a brief hug and a wicked grin. “My sister would like to meet you,” he informed her cheekily. “She says she has tried to find you all week, but you have always been gone.”

Skye blinked. “Why would she want to meet me?” She rolled her eyes, though her tone was teasing. “Are you telling her all about the dumb American you got stuck with?”

Pietro laughed and shook his head. “Not at all.”

“Why, then?”

He studied her for a moment, his usually jovial expression turning serious. “I cannot really say,” he replied after a long hesitation. “Just that she would like to.”

Skye shrugged and smiled. “I’d be happy to meet her. We could grab dinner after our shift tonight, maybe?”

Pietro nodded, his usual smile returning. “Good.”

Except that it didn’t work out that way. Pietro got a call midway through the afternoon that had him zipping off quickly with a curse in Sokovian. The next time they worked together, they meant to try again but Skye wound up with food poisoning from something at lunch. She had no idea how Pietro moved fast enough to catch her before she hit her hands and knees, stomach heaving, but she was too sick to give it much thought.

In the end, it was an accident that they met. Skye was headed back to her hostel, her attention on her phone because Miles just wouldn’t quit texting her. She was aware enough to skirt a major construction site, staying outside of the designated barricades, when she suddenly heard the screech of tormented metal.

“Look out!” a female voice screamed from across the street. Skye barely had time to look around before a blurry figure slammed into her, knocking her breathless as he propelled her out of the way of a falling I-beam. When she landed on the ground, she watched with wide eyes as a red-tinged energy manipulated the beam to land where there were no people present.

A moment after the energy faded away, a young woman dashed over and fell to her knees beside Skye and her rescuer.

Pietro. Her friend and sometimes work buddy, who apparently somehow moved faster than she could see to get her out of harm’s way.

“Thank you,” Skye said finally. Her eyes darted from Pietro to the other woman. “Both of you, I think?”

The woman broke into a wide grin and Pietro began to chuckle. “Skye, my friend, please meet my sister Wanda. Your soulmate, I think.”

Skye tilted her head to the side, realizing all of a sudden that the mark on her lower abdomen did indeed say “look out!” She’d just heard that sort of yell all too often in New York City and figured the chances of her actually meeting her soulmate were pretty low.

Wanda’s expression settled into a serene smile, though a hint of red light flickered briefly in the depths of her dark eyes. “I am so happy to finally meet you, my Skye. I have seen you so many times in my dreams, but each time I looked where I saw you, you were not there.”

“I’m sorry,” Skye answered gently. “If I had known you were looking, I would have tried to be there sooner.”

Wanda shook her head. “It is all right. Now that we are together, nothing will part us again for long.”

Skye arched an eyebrow. “You seem rather sure of that.”

“I do not see everything, and what I see can be changed sometimes, but we promise that you will never again be without a family. You belong with us, now,” Wanda replied firmly.

“You’re welcome to leave the hostel and stay with us,” Pietro added. “We do not have much, but what we have is yours to share.”

“I… I don’t have much either. But…”

“We will be together,” Wanda crooned, brushing gentle fingers through Skye’s long hair. “It will be enough.”

“Yeah,” Skye finally agreed. “It will be enough.” Deciding to just jump in, she leaned in and kissed Wanda’s full lips with gentle pressure. Their arms wound around each other’s necks and for a brief eternity they lost themselves in each other.

It was Pietro’s chuckling that eventually parted them again. “Come, sisters,” he cajoled them. “You may kiss to your hearts’ content when we are home.”

Skye smiled at the idea. Home. Damn, was she glad she’d come to Sokovia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because everyone wants home.
> 
> To all my faithful readers, thank you very much for your patience with my lack of anything substantial to share with you. I'm slowly working my way through grief and depression, and it isn't being easy. Your love and support mean the world to me, though, so thank you all for being amazing people.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! If you have suggestions for pairings, you're welcome to mention them. I make no promises, but I don't mind giving them some thought.
> 
> And, of course, if you find yourself inspired and would want to continue one of my shorts... talk to me about it. I'm not willing to just open up my stories to anyone, but if you have an idea I'm certainly willing to listen!


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